Signs you’re doing it right

Last night Dver and I celebrated Skeneia which is a banquet in honor of Persephone and Chthonic Dionysos. It doesn’t normally fall on November 1st but because of some last minute calendrical juggling it ended up doing so this year. Doing so totally changed the feel of the festival but I think that for this year, at least, it worked.

We packed up our fare (consisting of wine, root vegetables and assorted other foods that were black or red) and processed down to one of the parks where we’ve observed Anthesteria in years past. (One year we discovered that the interesting tree we’d hung the dolls from just so happened to be one of the trees said to grow in the underworld.) We found a secluded area with a cool wall we used as an eschara and laid out the feast, which I must say Dver arranged gorgeously. After the ritual was over we hailed Dionysos and his dead and began a wandering procession down a magical alley …

… and many magical things happened.

It would strain your credulity were I to list all of them, but one marvel I will indeed share!

After leading the troop of Bacchic spirits in a rough circle round the heart of downtown, Dver and I stopped to discuss which of two ways to go when the matter was decided for us. A horde of dancing zombies came out of nowhere, encircled us and proceeded to boogie down to Michael Jackson’s Thriller which was blaring from a boombox one of them was carrying. “Time to put on your mask,” Dver said and I slid Harlequin‘s leather face down over mine and we lead a furious host, visible and invisible, to Kesey Square.

I also bought a bottle of Sambuca and I’ll be offering some to Melinoë later tonight, then doing so each month on the 28th. Not sure why, but I’m really feeling like I should take up her cultus. Had a really powerful encounter with her while doing some synched ritual with Galina on Halloween, and it’s continued since. Earlier tonight, for instance, in the middle of dinner I was hit with this strong compulsion to get a pale liqueur for her and the dead and bonus points if it was Italian.

So, yeah. Crazy couple of weeks, let me tell you.