October 14, 2025 • 24 mins
October has a way of shaking the dust off creativity. In this episode, Mo looks at how Halloween’s built-in weirdness gives people an excuse to show sides of themselves they usually keep hidden. It’s not about spells or candy — it’s about the rare moment when performance, play, and belonging overlap.
She traces that spark into the rest of the year, sharing small rituals that keep curiosity alive — Sunday-night cards, moon journaling, neighborhood costume swaps — the kind of repeatable moments that turn time into texture and help you craft a life that feels like your own.
Hit play, then tell us your favorite ritual or the tiny celebration you’ll start this week. If it lands, share it with a friend who loves a good theme, and leave a review so we can keep bringing a little make-believe to the everyday.
Instagram: @this.is.a.metaphor & @joyscout.mo
Email Mo: mo@joyscoutstudio.com
Cover Design by: Joyscout Studio // For commissioned art & design inquiries: Joyscout Studio
“Don’t get Deterred, get Inspired”
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:14):
Oh my coming downstairs It's spooky season It
is a season of spooky thingsIt's a season of repressed
creativity Don't be frightenedCome on in It's the month that
(00:40):
most people have been waitingall year long for Why?
SPEAKER_02 (00:45):
Maybe because you get to be a little weird.
Maybe it's because you get tocelebrate the wickedness inside
of you and um quite honestly ina in a culture that seems to
condemn any of the shadows ofyour humanness.
(01:06):
And it's just part of the story.
It's all part of the grittinessof being human.
And it's fun once a year to bewild and to have limitations on
your creativity for 30 days thatsays, what theme are you gonna
choose for your Halloween party,for your costume?
How many parties are you goingto?
(01:27):
Are you celebrating?
Are you excited?
And I feel like of all of theyears, the last five or so, I
have seen so many decorations.
And granted, that's that'sTampa, that's Clearwater, that's
St.
Pete, and it's it's just reallycelebrated here.
(01:48):
And the last few years I've beenspending a lot of time in
Charleston around October andNovember.
And Charleston, if you've notbeen to Charleston, my goodness,
it's just yeah, I don't evenwant to say anymore because I
just want to keep it like thebest secret known to mankind.
What a fucking beautiful place,just stunning in every direction
(02:12):
and colorful and so much historyand food.
Oh my goodness, the food.
The food makes you want to havemore than one stomach so that
you can adequately experiencethe tastiness that's coming at
you from every right andor wrongturn.
And it's the type of city thatyou can just make so many wrong
(02:34):
turns and always end upsomewhere beautiful.
That being said, Halloween thereis a lot of fun.
I mean, neighborhoods just getup and at it, and it's usually
wonderful weather, and you juststroll, and it doesn't matter
what age you are, you are infact trigger-treating.
It's a lot of fun.
And when someone tells me thattheir favorite holiday is
(02:57):
Halloween, I've always kind offelt that that just means that
they don't have a lot of avenuesfor their creative expression.
And that's not always the case.
I mean, it's a wonderful time ofyear, but a lot of the times it
really, it really is becausethere's so many, I think, a
(03:19):
longing for individuality.
And I think that makes you I seethat seed just being planted in
this past year and and probablyin many years to come where it's
not just gonna be one monthwhere you get to show how freaky
you can be, how weird you canbe, how how enthusiastic you can
be to celebrate.
(03:39):
Like people need a reason tocelebrate.
And man, like I mean, I grew upand it was like dorky to want to
celebrate things, you know, likeyou just show your coolness and
not be affected by anoverwhelming amount of
enthusiasm towards a lot ofthings, and and now it's like
celebrating the humanity inYuvet is in fact emphatic,
(04:03):
really.
Is that the word that I want?
Let's look it up.
Sorry, I'm not gonna edit thatsound out because it's
authentic.
Emphatic emphatic showing orgiving emphasis, expressing
something forcibly and clearly.
Well it's not not emphatic.
(04:24):
Enthusiastic synonyms, please.
I spelled it very wrong.
Please correct me.
unknown (04:32):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (04:34):
Eager, keen, avid, ardent, fervent, warm,
passionate, zealous, excited,energetic, lively, energized,
animated, vigorous, dynamic,vehement, fiery, exuberant,
(04:55):
emulient, spirited, hearty,wholehearted, committed,
willing.
I'm not gonna stop.
I'm having a lot of fun.
I'll stop.
But there does seem to be anexpansion, and I'm I'm pretty
sure social media outlets andavenues have really created what
(05:18):
is very needed and people arehungry for, which is a sense of
celebration, like something tocelebrate.
And like when it comes to acelebration, I don't know, I
don't know if you know this, butthere are a lot more fun when a
lot of people are there thathave the same amount of joy
(05:42):
about what's being celebrated asyou do.
I mean, it was you know, itwasn't really fun being at the
party when you know people don'twant to be there.
It's an it's not you don't wantit to be a mandated party, you
want it to be a collection of oflike-heartedness.
Is that a I'm gonna I get tomake up words because I have an
(06:04):
English degree and it was moreexpensive, I would say, than
most English degrees.
And that's all I'm gonna sayabout that.
But that means that sometimes Imake up words and I don't want
to have to un make them.
You know, that's the part of thecreativity that I have invested
in myself, and I'm I'm not, Imean, I'm probably just as
(06:27):
creatively repressed as the nextperson, which is probably saying
quite a bit, because it'sprobably like a percentage, you
know.
Doesn't matter how many thingsyou do that are artful or
creative and or unorthodox, itjust means how much are you
doing versus how much do youwant to be doing or how much
exists inside of you that youwould like to see pulled out
(06:48):
into the outside world.
And because of social media andI think just the hunger for I
mean, you can say content, butreally the hunger to be seen,
the more you want to be seen,the more originality I think is
(07:09):
gonna be desired in the in thelong run.
And so you can always justrecreate something that you've
seen.
But if you're hungry for whatyour style is, and I think that
that is inevitable, the morethat you begin to create, you're
going to start distilling downto honestly just your truths.
(07:30):
And when that happens, you'regonna want, you're gonna
inevitably see not just likewhat you're made of, but what
you want to make, you know, theworld that you want to invite
people into.
And the hunger that exists formost of us, I think, when we are
being consumers, as far asscrolling, consuming content,
(07:51):
there is this deep desire,especially if you like what
you're seeing, like especiallyif you have consciously chosen
more of what you're seeing, oryou really interact with what
you're seeing so that you seemore of it, so that you engage
and you are fed more of thelike.
And so let's say you like, youknow, watching people bake some
(08:14):
cakes, and then they're like,what about the chef who's
chopping up this piece of meat,you know?
And and and it's like we all weall know how an algorithm works.
But when it comes to creativity,if you really start getting into
one thing that you like a lotand you want to see more of it,
you're gonna see so manyiterations of a person slicing
(08:34):
and chopping meat and preppingmeat, and there's so many
personalities and identities ofsomeone doing the same exact
thing as the next person, but ina very different way, you know?
Like, and that's that that'sstyle, that's that's choice, and
that's like that's the magicthat comes to doing something
that you feel expresses yourcuriosity.
(08:58):
And curiosity is the beginningof of all of this.
And I think when like Septemberrolls around every year, and you
know, in some years, it's beenlike July, I think, and people
are just itching for pumpkinlattes, and and and and I'm the
fucking way, I'm all for pumpkineverything.
I accept that that's the basicpart of me, and I celebrate it.
(09:21):
I celebrate moments where I getto be a part of the collective,
and I can maybe even gauge andsee judgments that I might
acquire because of it.
Because as someone who deeplycraves individuality, it's nice
to choose moments of of being abit of a sheep, being a sheep
(09:44):
person.
And I I like that like clichesexist for a reason, you know?
Cliches exist for reasonsbecause it speaks to a lot of
people in a lot of differentways.
And when it comes to the seasonof Halloween, I get so excited
(10:04):
for that that that frenzy of ofa curated mood, a curated mood
of who even knows what.
Like it could be so many things,it's just whatever you find to
be a little bit strange or a lotof bit disturbing or really,
really gross, or like reallyscary, or like slightly
(10:25):
unnerving, or maybe even justreally cute, or the beautiful
parts of the the colors, andit's just whatever the whatever
the fuck you want.
It's your season to do that, andI'm not condemning that at all.
But it's either the maybe what'shappening in the world right now
and in the country that I don'tsee as much Halloween this year,
(10:49):
or that's you know, that's justthe easy pendulum swing.
And the other side of thependulum I I think is that we're
given so many more days of theyear to celebrate now.
And I'm gonna segue that intowhy I love astrology, because
and the last few years occulthappenings have just been so
(11:12):
we're so hungry for it, we're sohungry for a bit of mysticism.
And mysticism does not apply toastrology, but it is a meta
science, and and it, I mean,it's not it's not a belief
system.
Let's get that out of the way.
It is a tool, and it's it's ait's a way to apply a millennia
(11:34):
of of of data and patterns overtime and over celestial
happenings and apply them invery experienced ways and sort
of reflect and see the worldthrough a certain type of lens.
And everyone's birth chart looksdifferent, you know, and it's
really fucking cool.
(11:55):
Um, it's really fucking cool.
And I feel like what startedwith a couple of posts on
Instagram about what a Leo likesto wear to bed, or what a
Scorpio likes to wear to bed, orlike what a Pisces likes to, you
know, these little genres andglimpses of the zodiac created
just ripples of different typesof data points where people
(12:18):
wanted to show up online andthey're using astrology to just
be like, this is how Iexperience these signs, or this
is what this placement means tome.
And it's it's fucking wild andit's wonderful, but also it's so
many different iterations ofwhat is a bunch of data points,
really, and you're putting themtogether and it's quite
(12:38):
beautiful.
And on the same, on that samewavelength, I think so much
witchcraft became kind of liketotally acceptable to to be
like, I'm I'm a fucking witch,bruh.
What are you gonna do?
And and to lean into tarot andto just be like, what if the
card does mean something morethan you think that it means?
(13:02):
And and like I think it'sfucking fascinating that really
a five or six year stretch oftime, like so much of these,
these facets of of I think whatwas something that was mocked
for a long time.
Whether or not you personallyhave believed and subscribed in
manners of the occult and andmore spiritual things, like
(13:25):
lately it's people are curious,like what's the what's the woo
stuff that you do?
What's your woo?
It's a very personal thing.
And I feel like it's reallyexciting because if we take
astrology, not that astrology iswoo, I'm just saying that the
movement of all this, it'sreally it would be very silly to
(13:46):
not involve astrology in thegreater conversation.
Every day is like a holiday whenit comes to astrology.
If you if you did it right andyou were paying enough
attention, like there is justsomething to be giddy about and
or have perspective about andand to create a ritual about and
(14:08):
and to to journal about or totalk to someone about to engage,
and it's just such wonderfulmechanism for connection and
reflection, and we're so fuckinghungry to connect and reflect,
not just with people around us,but deeply with ourselves, and
that is why you can you know youcan group these these parts of
(14:33):
the occult into this wonderfulbouquet of of wildness, but it
gives people a reason to createritual in their life, and we've
been so hungry for it becausefor a long time, especially I
mean in my lifetime, you hadthree major holidays, and then
the rest of the year it was justkind of like this slingshot
(14:54):
happening that just like justplopped you around a whip flash
moment between the new year andthen the end of the year where
everything feels as though it'sfine and dandy, and then
suddenly you're putting outpumpkins, and then you're doing
a turkey, and then you'reputting up a tree, and then
suddenly you're hoping to setintentions for a new year, and
(15:16):
and it all repeats again.
And those are all I probablywouldn't change any of that, but
to like it gives so much spaceto the rest of the year to be
able to be like, what do I feellike is happening this month,
and what does this month meanfor me?
And if I mean out fucking thestars for sure light up my life,
(15:40):
they really do, and and the moonthe moon like how is the moon
not just a giant metaphor forbeing uh just a human with with
a dark side and an illuminatedside, and the parts of ourselves
that we see clearly, and theparts that are you know we're
(16:04):
blinded by, and then the onesthat we can't see the truth
through, and the parts that wecan't see because it feels too
scary to ever go there, youknow, and and uh that's one of
the the parts of I will saywitchcraft that is so
wonderfully enticing, which issort of those cycles of the
(16:27):
moon.
Every like two weeks, you know,you're either getting energized
by the reveal of this full moon,or you're just kind of maybe
being more of the hermit andthen coming down into this this
mode of reflection and and maybehealing, or just you know, the
new moon.
It's it's like you're eitherplanting seeds or you're
(16:48):
resting.
And there is a metaphor that youcould work in every direction.
Like it, you know, the new mooneither means you're planting a
seed or it means thatsomething's coming to an end.
Like it's like, and I thinkthose are the qualities and the
synonyms I think that confusepeople from the outside when
they don't when they don't knowthe language or they don't know
(17:09):
the experience of participating,really.
It's because they all requirequite a bit of discernment.
Like they require quite a bit ofdiscernment, and a lot of people
do not possess that at all.
They very much need theprescription that says this is
this and that is that, andanything other that requires you
(17:30):
to deeply trust what you thinkis real and what you think is
right and what you think ishonest, that's scary because
discernment requires you to beable to say that is for me and
that is not, and just becauseit's for me does not mean it's
gonna be for you.
And that is, you know, as ametaphoring the fuck out of
(17:54):
this, like that's that is artand that is creativity.
Like my art is not always gonnabe your idea of good, and what
makes me smile on my wall is notnecessarily gonna make you
smile.
It's it is veryexperience-driven, but there's a
whole language that we can useto describe things, and we're
(18:16):
all kind of using it together,and it gets scary when someone
uses a word that we think ismaybe bad in a way that for them
is good and fun, but thatdoesn't mean that they're wrong,
and it doesn't mean that they'reabusing your language, that just
means that they're speaking alanguage too, and that's what
that means to them.
And yeah, Halloween is just thattime of year every year that
(18:40):
people get to blur the linesbetween how they get to show up
that that month or that weekend,or you know, what their house
looks like, or what type ofchaos they're allowing in their
front yard, or or what type ofparty and who's gonna be
invited, and and what's thetheme, and what am I gonna be?
Like, how do how would I how doI want to be this year?
(19:02):
You know, I always go kind ofgory.
I love a little bit of gore formyself, and I think it's just
because it's easy.
Like, I don't like to complicatemy costume.
Like, I think I did that as akid, and but as an adult, I just
want the thing that's gonna beso wonderfully that's gonna push
me to the top of cool, but takeas little time as possible.
(19:24):
And I think a lot of blood andand and makeup is a way to kind
of do that.
Like that to me is is easier inyour telling a story, but to
other people, you fuckingthey're out here sewing their
costumes, they're making theircostumes, they're creating
illusions, they're they're youknow, having robotics, they're
blowing up balloons, like it'swhatever it is, and I I adore
(19:45):
it.
It's like really a feeling thatI feel like I've been trying to
get back to a lot lately.
Like setting up for Halloween oror you know, the the act of
putting up decorations and theact of like getting ready to go
to a Halloween party, I think,is everyone is doing their thing
(20:06):
and everyone's getting a littlebit outside of their comfort
zone.
And it reminds me of growing upin the theater so much because
you're creating a world on thisstage, and everyone is like, you
know, they're in the hallways orin the classroom, and I'm I'm
talking about my theater in myhigh school, and you were just
showing up, you know, after theschool day when the school was
(20:28):
quiet and the halls were empty,and it was, you know, middle of
October, and so it was just thethe leaves were falling and and
and the weather was kind ofcool, and the door, then the
hallway was open, and theauditorium doors are are open,
and you can hear peoplepracticing in the other room,
but you're make making thestage, you're creating the set
design, like you're gluing stufftogether, you're paper
(20:49):
macheting, you're trying to findout where the corset from last
year's production was, you know,or wasn't in the regular
wardrobe room, and you're justmaking things work and you're
putting stuff together andyou're gluing it and you're
stapling it, and it doesn'tmatter because you've got to get
it done.
And you're about to tell astory, you're about to create a
world of people for people tobelieve in, you know, and it's
(21:12):
just a time of make-believe.
And everybody is agreeing thatwe get to make-believe together,
and it's like make-believingfrom the curb or the side of the
road when I look at your yard orI look at your lawn, or it's a
Friday night, a couple weeksbefore Halloween, and you come
out of your house with a bedsheet on and two eye holes, and
(21:32):
it's pretty adorable.
And it's like I I love it, and II just think that more and more
we hopefully get to do thosemoments and invite people in to
make-believe all throughout theyear, and these mechanisms,
these catalysts for that type ofof existing.
(21:53):
And a celebration is a it's arich, it's ritual, and rituals
happen through intention andrepetition.
It's cyclical, you know, it'sthis is this thing that comes
back around.
And however it comes back aroundfor you to be able to do one
more, one more iteration, onemore interpretation of something
(22:14):
that you enjoyed doing, whetherit was, you know, dressing up
for a holiday or a certain faceof the moon a couple times of a
year, or you know, laying tarotcards, you know, on Sunday
evenings with a candle, likewhatever, whatever it is,
whatever the thing is, that justis a little bit fun, and and the
(22:40):
meaning behind it is to believein something greater and to even
connect with someone, be ityourself or a friend, or a
community, or I don't know, aspirit, whatever it is, and just
um just do it, just do it.
Just just show up for it, andI'm I'm I'm down and I I support
you.
(23:01):
And this is a really fun, funtime of year.
And I'm so looking forward tohaving more holidays and
celebrations within myself inhopefully the years to come that
are outside of October.
(23:24):
Um however, that is a wonderfulsegue into the next musings
episode, which I've just nowdecided, which is gonna be about
the month of October and whatthat actually means for me every
year.
So that will be next week.
Oh my coming downstairs It's spooky season It
is a season of spooky thingsIt's a season of repressed
creativity Don't be frightenedCome on in It's the month that
(00:40):
most people have been waitingall year long for Why?
SPEAKER_02 (00:45):
Maybe because you get to be a little weird.
Maybe it's because you get tocelebrate the wickedness inside
of you and um quite honestly ina in a culture that seems to
condemn any of the shadows ofyour humanness.
(01:06):
And it's just part of the story.
It's all part of the grittinessof being human.
And it's fun once a year to bewild and to have limitations on
your creativity for 30 days thatsays, what theme are you gonna
choose for your Halloween party,for your costume?
How many parties are you goingto?
(01:27):
Are you celebrating?
Are you excited?
And I feel like of all of theyears, the last five or so, I
have seen so many decorations.
And granted, that's that'sTampa, that's Clearwater, that's
St.
Pete, and it's it's just reallycelebrated here.
(01:48):
And the last few years I've beenspending a lot of time in
Charleston around October andNovember.
And Charleston, if you've notbeen to Charleston, my goodness,
it's just yeah, I don't evenwant to say anymore because I
just want to keep it like thebest secret known to mankind.
What a fucking beautiful place,just stunning in every direction
(02:12):
and colorful and so much historyand food.
Oh my goodness, the food.
The food makes you want to havemore than one stomach so that
you can adequately experiencethe tastiness that's coming at
you from every right andor wrongturn.
And it's the type of city thatyou can just make so many wrong
(02:34):
turns and always end upsomewhere beautiful.
That being said, Halloween thereis a lot of fun.
I mean, neighborhoods just getup and at it, and it's usually
wonderful weather, and you juststroll, and it doesn't matter
what age you are, you are infact trigger-treating.
It's a lot of fun.
And when someone tells me thattheir favorite holiday is
(02:57):
Halloween, I've always kind offelt that that just means that
they don't have a lot of avenuesfor their creative expression.
And that's not always the case.
I mean, it's a wonderful time ofyear, but a lot of the times it
really, it really is becausethere's so many, I think, a
(03:19):
longing for individuality.
And I think that makes you I seethat seed just being planted in
this past year and and probablyin many years to come where it's
not just gonna be one monthwhere you get to show how freaky
you can be, how weird you canbe, how how enthusiastic you can
be to celebrate.
(03:39):
Like people need a reason tocelebrate.
And man, like I mean, I grew upand it was like dorky to want to
celebrate things, you know, likeyou just show your coolness and
not be affected by anoverwhelming amount of
enthusiasm towards a lot ofthings, and and now it's like
celebrating the humanity inYuvet is in fact emphatic,
(04:03):
really.
Is that the word that I want?
Let's look it up.
Sorry, I'm not gonna edit thatsound out because it's
authentic.
Emphatic emphatic showing orgiving emphasis, expressing
something forcibly and clearly.
Well it's not not emphatic.
(04:24):
Enthusiastic synonyms, please.
I spelled it very wrong.
Please correct me.
unknown (04:32):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (04:34):
Eager, keen, avid, ardent, fervent, warm,
passionate, zealous, excited,energetic, lively, energized,
animated, vigorous, dynamic,vehement, fiery, exuberant,
(04:55):
emulient, spirited, hearty,wholehearted, committed,
willing.
I'm not gonna stop.
I'm having a lot of fun.
I'll stop.
But there does seem to be anexpansion, and I'm I'm pretty
sure social media outlets andavenues have really created what
(05:18):
is very needed and people arehungry for, which is a sense of
celebration, like something tocelebrate.
And like when it comes to acelebration, I don't know, I
don't know if you know this, butthere are a lot more fun when a
lot of people are there thathave the same amount of joy
(05:42):
about what's being celebrated asyou do.
I mean, it was you know, itwasn't really fun being at the
party when you know people don'twant to be there.
It's an it's not you don't wantit to be a mandated party, you
want it to be a collection of oflike-heartedness.
Is that a I'm gonna I get tomake up words because I have an
(06:04):
English degree and it was moreexpensive, I would say, than
most English degrees.
And that's all I'm gonna sayabout that.
But that means that sometimes Imake up words and I don't want
to have to un make them.
You know, that's the part of thecreativity that I have invested
in myself, and I'm I'm not, Imean, I'm probably just as
(06:27):
creatively repressed as the nextperson, which is probably saying
quite a bit, because it'sprobably like a percentage, you
know.
Doesn't matter how many thingsyou do that are artful or
creative and or unorthodox, itjust means how much are you
doing versus how much do youwant to be doing or how much
exists inside of you that youwould like to see pulled out
(06:48):
into the outside world.
And because of social media andI think just the hunger for I
mean, you can say content, butreally the hunger to be seen,
the more you want to be seen,the more originality I think is
(07:09):
gonna be desired in the in thelong run.
And so you can always justrecreate something that you've
seen.
But if you're hungry for whatyour style is, and I think that
that is inevitable, the morethat you begin to create, you're
going to start distilling downto honestly just your truths.
(07:30):
And when that happens, you'regonna want, you're gonna
inevitably see not just likewhat you're made of, but what
you want to make, you know, theworld that you want to invite
people into.
And the hunger that exists formost of us, I think, when we are
being consumers, as far asscrolling, consuming content,
(07:51):
there is this deep desire,especially if you like what
you're seeing, like especiallyif you have consciously chosen
more of what you're seeing, oryou really interact with what
you're seeing so that you seemore of it, so that you engage
and you are fed more of thelike.
And so let's say you like, youknow, watching people bake some
(08:14):
cakes, and then they're like,what about the chef who's
chopping up this piece of meat,you know?
And and and it's like we all weall know how an algorithm works.
But when it comes to creativity,if you really start getting into
one thing that you like a lotand you want to see more of it,
you're gonna see so manyiterations of a person slicing
(08:34):
and chopping meat and preppingmeat, and there's so many
personalities and identities ofsomeone doing the same exact
thing as the next person, but ina very different way, you know?
Like, and that's that that'sstyle, that's that's choice, and
that's like that's the magicthat comes to doing something
that you feel expresses yourcuriosity.
(08:58):
And curiosity is the beginningof of all of this.
And I think when like Septemberrolls around every year, and you
know, in some years, it's beenlike July, I think, and people
are just itching for pumpkinlattes, and and and and I'm the
fucking way, I'm all for pumpkineverything.
I accept that that's the basicpart of me, and I celebrate it.
(09:21):
I celebrate moments where I getto be a part of the collective,
and I can maybe even gauge andsee judgments that I might
acquire because of it.
Because as someone who deeplycraves individuality, it's nice
to choose moments of of being abit of a sheep, being a sheep
(09:44):
person.
And I I like that like clichesexist for a reason, you know?
Cliches exist for reasonsbecause it speaks to a lot of
people in a lot of differentways.
And when it comes to the seasonof Halloween, I get so excited
(10:04):
for that that that frenzy of ofa curated mood, a curated mood
of who even knows what.
Like it could be so many things,it's just whatever you find to
be a little bit strange or a lotof bit disturbing or really,
really gross, or like reallyscary, or like slightly
(10:25):
unnerving, or maybe even justreally cute, or the beautiful
parts of the the colors, andit's just whatever the whatever
the fuck you want.
It's your season to do that, andI'm not condemning that at all.
But it's either the maybe what'shappening in the world right now
and in the country that I don'tsee as much Halloween this year,
(10:49):
or that's you know, that's justthe easy pendulum swing.
And the other side of thependulum I I think is that we're
given so many more days of theyear to celebrate now.
And I'm gonna segue that intowhy I love astrology, because
and the last few years occulthappenings have just been so
(11:12):
we're so hungry for it, we're sohungry for a bit of mysticism.
And mysticism does not apply toastrology, but it is a meta
science, and and it, I mean,it's not it's not a belief
system.
Let's get that out of the way.
It is a tool, and it's it's ait's a way to apply a millennia
(11:34):
of of of data and patterns overtime and over celestial
happenings and apply them invery experienced ways and sort
of reflect and see the worldthrough a certain type of lens.
And everyone's birth chart looksdifferent, you know, and it's
really fucking cool.
(11:55):
Um, it's really fucking cool.
And I feel like what startedwith a couple of posts on
Instagram about what a Leo likesto wear to bed, or what a
Scorpio likes to wear to bed, orlike what a Pisces likes to, you
know, these little genres andglimpses of the zodiac created
just ripples of different typesof data points where people
(12:18):
wanted to show up online andthey're using astrology to just
be like, this is how Iexperience these signs, or this
is what this placement means tome.
And it's it's fucking wild andit's wonderful, but also it's so
many different iterations ofwhat is a bunch of data points,
really, and you're putting themtogether and it's quite
(12:38):
beautiful.
And on the same, on that samewavelength, I think so much
witchcraft became kind of liketotally acceptable to to be
like, I'm I'm a fucking witch,bruh.
What are you gonna do?
And and to lean into tarot andto just be like, what if the
card does mean something morethan you think that it means?
(13:02):
And and like I think it'sfucking fascinating that really
a five or six year stretch oftime, like so much of these,
these facets of of I think whatwas something that was mocked
for a long time.
Whether or not you personallyhave believed and subscribed in
manners of the occult and andmore spiritual things, like
(13:25):
lately it's people are curious,like what's the what's the woo
stuff that you do?
What's your woo?
It's a very personal thing.
And I feel like it's reallyexciting because if we take
astrology, not that astrology iswoo, I'm just saying that the
movement of all this, it'sreally it would be very silly to
(13:46):
not involve astrology in thegreater conversation.
Every day is like a holiday whenit comes to astrology.
If you if you did it right andyou were paying enough
attention, like there is justsomething to be giddy about and
or have perspective about andand to create a ritual about and
(14:08):
and to to journal about or totalk to someone about to engage,
and it's just such wonderfulmechanism for connection and
reflection, and we're so fuckinghungry to connect and reflect,
not just with people around us,but deeply with ourselves, and
that is why you can you know youcan group these these parts of
(14:33):
the occult into this wonderfulbouquet of of wildness, but it
gives people a reason to createritual in their life, and we've
been so hungry for it becausefor a long time, especially I
mean in my lifetime, you hadthree major holidays, and then
the rest of the year it was justkind of like this slingshot
(14:54):
happening that just like justplopped you around a whip flash
moment between the new year andthen the end of the year where
everything feels as though it'sfine and dandy, and then
suddenly you're putting outpumpkins, and then you're doing
a turkey, and then you'reputting up a tree, and then
suddenly you're hoping to setintentions for a new year, and
(15:16):
and it all repeats again.
And those are all I probablywouldn't change any of that, but
to like it gives so much spaceto the rest of the year to be
able to be like, what do I feellike is happening this month,
and what does this month meanfor me?
And if I mean out fucking thestars for sure light up my life,
(15:40):
they really do, and and the moonthe moon like how is the moon
not just a giant metaphor forbeing uh just a human with with
a dark side and an illuminatedside, and the parts of ourselves
that we see clearly, and theparts that are you know we're
(16:04):
blinded by, and then the onesthat we can't see the truth
through, and the parts that wecan't see because it feels too
scary to ever go there, youknow, and and uh that's one of
the the parts of I will saywitchcraft that is so
wonderfully enticing, which issort of those cycles of the
(16:27):
moon.
Every like two weeks, you know,you're either getting energized
by the reveal of this full moon,or you're just kind of maybe
being more of the hermit andthen coming down into this this
mode of reflection and and maybehealing, or just you know, the
new moon.
It's it's like you're eitherplanting seeds or you're
(16:48):
resting.
And there is a metaphor that youcould work in every direction.
Like it, you know, the new mooneither means you're planting a
seed or it means thatsomething's coming to an end.
Like it's like, and I thinkthose are the qualities and the
synonyms I think that confusepeople from the outside when
they don't when they don't knowthe language or they don't know
(17:09):
the experience of participating,really.
It's because they all requirequite a bit of discernment.
Like they require quite a bit ofdiscernment, and a lot of people
do not possess that at all.
They very much need theprescription that says this is
this and that is that, andanything other that requires you
(17:30):
to deeply trust what you thinkis real and what you think is
right and what you think ishonest, that's scary because
discernment requires you to beable to say that is for me and
that is not, and just becauseit's for me does not mean it's
gonna be for you.
And that is, you know, as ametaphoring the fuck out of
(17:54):
this, like that's that is artand that is creativity.
Like my art is not always gonnabe your idea of good, and what
makes me smile on my wall is notnecessarily gonna make you
smile.
It's it is veryexperience-driven, but there's a
whole language that we can useto describe things, and we're
(18:16):
all kind of using it together,and it gets scary when someone
uses a word that we think ismaybe bad in a way that for them
is good and fun, but thatdoesn't mean that they're wrong,
and it doesn't mean that they'reabusing your language, that just
means that they're speaking alanguage too, and that's what
that means to them.
And yeah, Halloween is just thattime of year every year that
(18:40):
people get to blur the linesbetween how they get to show up
that that month or that weekend,or you know, what their house
looks like, or what type ofchaos they're allowing in their
front yard, or or what type ofparty and who's gonna be
invited, and and what's thetheme, and what am I gonna be?
Like, how do how would I how doI want to be this year?
(19:02):
You know, I always go kind ofgory.
I love a little bit of gore formyself, and I think it's just
because it's easy.
Like, I don't like to complicatemy costume.
Like, I think I did that as akid, and but as an adult, I just
want the thing that's gonna beso wonderfully that's gonna push
me to the top of cool, but takeas little time as possible.
(19:24):
And I think a lot of blood andand and makeup is a way to kind
of do that.
Like that to me is is easier inyour telling a story, but to
other people, you fuckingthey're out here sewing their
costumes, they're making theircostumes, they're creating
illusions, they're they're youknow, having robotics, they're
blowing up balloons, like it'swhatever it is, and I I adore
(19:45):
it.
It's like really a feeling thatI feel like I've been trying to
get back to a lot lately.
Like setting up for Halloween oror you know, the the act of
putting up decorations and theact of like getting ready to go
to a Halloween party, I think,is everyone is doing their thing
(20:06):
and everyone's getting a littlebit outside of their comfort
zone.
And it reminds me of growing upin the theater so much because
you're creating a world on thisstage, and everyone is like, you
know, they're in the hallways orin the classroom, and I'm I'm
talking about my theater in myhigh school, and you were just
showing up, you know, after theschool day when the school was
(20:28):
quiet and the halls were empty,and it was, you know, middle of
October, and so it was just thethe leaves were falling and and
and the weather was kind ofcool, and the door, then the
hallway was open, and theauditorium doors are are open,
and you can hear peoplepracticing in the other room,
but you're make making thestage, you're creating the set
design, like you're gluing stufftogether, you're paper
(20:49):
macheting, you're trying to findout where the corset from last
year's production was, you know,or wasn't in the regular
wardrobe room, and you're justmaking things work and you're
putting stuff together andyou're gluing it and you're
stapling it, and it doesn'tmatter because you've got to get
it done.
And you're about to tell astory, you're about to create a
world of people for people tobelieve in, you know, and it's
(21:12):
just a time of make-believe.
And everybody is agreeing thatwe get to make-believe together,
and it's like make-believingfrom the curb or the side of the
road when I look at your yard orI look at your lawn, or it's a
Friday night, a couple weeksbefore Halloween, and you come
out of your house with a bedsheet on and two eye holes, and
(21:32):
it's pretty adorable.
And it's like I I love it, and II just think that more and more
we hopefully get to do thosemoments and invite people in to
make-believe all throughout theyear, and these mechanisms,
these catalysts for that type ofof existing.
(21:53):
And a celebration is a it's arich, it's ritual, and rituals
happen through intention andrepetition.
It's cyclical, you know, it'sthis is this thing that comes
back around.
And however it comes back aroundfor you to be able to do one
more, one more iteration, onemore interpretation of something
(22:14):
that you enjoyed doing, whetherit was, you know, dressing up
for a holiday or a certain faceof the moon a couple times of a
year, or you know, laying tarotcards, you know, on Sunday
evenings with a candle, likewhatever, whatever it is,
whatever the thing is, that justis a little bit fun, and and the
(22:40):
meaning behind it is to believein something greater and to even
connect with someone, be ityourself or a friend, or a
community, or I don't know, aspirit, whatever it is, and just
um just do it, just do it.
Just just show up for it, andI'm I'm I'm down and I I support
you.
(23:01):
And this is a really fun, funtime of year.
And I'm so looking forward tohaving more holidays and
celebrations within myself inhopefully the years to come that
are outside of October.
(23:24):
Um however, that is a wonderfulsegue into the next musings
episode, which I've just nowdecided, which is gonna be about
the month of October and whatthat actually means for me every
year.
So that will be next week.
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