Scroll from the Editor
Welcome to the January 2023 edition of The Midnight Sun!
Happy New Year!
As we greet 2023, we in House Kheperu are excited for the coming year, and looking forward to what the future holds!
As Gather comes ever closer on the horizon, Submissions for Gather Classes are coming to a close, and we are hard at work reviewing entries! Stay tuned because we will share here as we have more updates for you, and keep an eye on our Social Media for other news and updates!
With the Wolf Moon full early this year (January 6th), there will be plenty of time this month to work with the waning of the moon to clear out the old and make way for the new and what adventures this year has in store.
Are you planning anything specific, or have certain things you’re wanted to shed from your life?
I know I find doing a bit of house cleaning, donating clothes or items to charity or shelters, vacuuming the extra cat out of my carpet, and spraying my house blessing solution are always useful things to me during a waning moon- but there is all manner of things folks do and engage for clearing and cleansing a space. Let’s continue the conversation on our Discord forum - I’d love to hear what, if any, plans you have!
This month we introduce three new columns you can look forward to reoccurring as the months go by; Stef’s Shadow Work Slow-Dance, Buck Tarot, and Tea, With Hex! Izlude has another contemplation for us, Suz has a write-up on the Chinese New Year, and we have another entry from the Tome of the Darkside Ritualist from Abri!
Needless to say, I hope you enjoy the newsletter this month. And if there’s anything you’d like to see in the future - let us know via Social Media, or Discord! We’re always interested to know what you’re interested to know!
There’s always more to learn, friends!
Miranda (Frick)
Curator and Editor of TMS
Stef’s Shadow Work Slow-Dance
Battling the Mask
“Take off the mask and find out.”
In early 2020 a fellow house member said this to me, and I repeat it to myself often. At the time, I was afraid of discovering I was a monster underneath the façade I had created. It’s still unclear what kind of monster I thought I was, but there was no way I would go digging for it and fuck anyone who tried to get me to do that work. I was terrified of being a ‘bad person,’ I often spent so much time attempting to make others happy that my whole personality revolved around gaining approval. Ultimately, I ended up cranky, mad, and upset that instead of finding out who I was and building my sense of self, I created a person I thought everyone wanted and expected.
“I often spent so much time attempting to make others happy that my whole personality revolved around gaining approval.”
We move through life wearing layers of masks, and people are often praised or admired for how easily they can adapt, swap disguises, and pretend to be someone else. This so-called skill, known as “masking” is embedded deep within us by society and so normalized that breaking out of that pattern is seen as deviant behavior.
Masking is so common that people often struggle to answer “How are you” honestly. Instead we respond with “good”, “fine”, or some iteration of a generic response because who wants to hear the truth? Right? This level of acting can be so tiresome, and while many of us may do this unconsciously, we’re upset when someone tells us, “You’re the only one thinking you’re masking effectively.”
So join me in future newsletters as we ‘take off the mask and find out’ who we really are and ask ourselves questions only the deepest and darkest corners of our psyche may answer.
House Kheperu Member Spotlight
Kelly
"Do it big, do it right, give it class."
WHAT INTERESTS YOU MOST ABOUT ENERGY WORK?
"The connections between people when working together. The trust between those doing the work is paramount. If there isn't trust, you won't be as open as you need to be to the working or experience. The connections grow and flourish when you trust those you're working with.
WHAT IS ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE MOVIES?
Labyrinth and the Princess Bride
Buck Tarot
Hello everyone! I’m Buck, a Dedicant on the Warrior Path in House Kheperu and I’m going to be doing tarot for you this month and buncha more months so stick around!
What is Buck Tarot?
RANDOM FUN! Every month I will put a bunch of categories into my wheelofnames.com wheel and spin for three! I will pull three cards for each one and tell you what I see! The goal is to use three different tarot decks but I only have one right now soooo… I gotta pick up two more. I’ll get ‘em later, promise, promise. Now, this is the neat part; I know very little about what the cards actually mean. HEHE.
So I’ll be looking at the cards and writing up what comes to mind using my intuition. This is for fun, so please join me on this adventure… BUCK TAROT GO!
February 2023 - Food
FOOOOOOOOD. We all love food right?
OKAY SO! Here we see a cute little scene on a farm.. PERFECT! This is where food comes from. Phew, we are off to a great start here. Alright ANNND.. we see a lady waving to a man here and he looks pretty happy to see her.. well duh she has food. I know I look at my wife lovingly when she has food for me. We got this old lady chillin… good-good, she need to chill she’s done her hard work. And we got kids playing in the background hell yeah they are having fun. So basically what I’m getting from this… eat your veggies.. flirt with your veggies.. they gonna make your life hella good.
Alllright.. we got a pretty priestess-looking lady here and she has a cute little person on a throne on her head.. heheh.. okay THAT IS A DISTRACTION! That little guy has been distracting me so don’t let distractions get in the way.. this card is screaming… DRINK WATER!!! FOR THE LOVE OF THE GODS DRINK WATER!! She is literally crying because your ass wont drink water. Soda and other drinks are yummy distractions but… drink your damn water. Lets be hydrated and healthy PEOPLE!
Oh man this card is so pretty… But what is it telling me…. HMMM… HM… of course eating at home, making your meals is yummy and good for the finances but takes a lot of work. Treat yourself to take out once in awhile! Order in or go out! Either way enjoy yourself! You work hard and life sucks sometimes. ORDER THAT PIZZA!!!
HK Jams - Flurries Fury
What are the Kheprians listening to this January? Check out our January playlist and give it a listen! Let us know what your favorite song is over on our Facebook, Instagram, or start a conversation over on our Discord Server.
The Cycle of Sleep
Winter is oftentimes a period of deep introspection, and reflection on the nature of life, death, and everything in between. What else is there to do really, when buried five feet deep in snow and ice? This is the time when the shadows grow long and deep, with Nature herself seeming to fall into slumber. Be patient, for the bitter Winter winds bear aloft next Spring’s seeds. The flower knows when it’s time to sleep, and time to bloom, and like Nature, we should alter our expectations for ourselves when the times are dark and cold. We are human beings, not human-doings, and when the darkness grows it is a time to simply be, and not do.
It is within this space of quiet contemplation that I’ve been theorizing about the living and the dead. It seems there is a cycle between them, with the living spending a third of their time asleep and two-thirds awake.
Perhaps the dead have a similar cycle, spending two-thirds of their time in peaceful sleep, and one-third of their time closer to awake. Perhaps sleep is that point between these two states of being, where the living are drawn closer to the dead, and the dead wake up just enough for contact? In the silence of your mind, the depths of your sleep, there could be a bridge between these two states of being. Perhaps when the dead are roused from their restful sleep, they remember their lives a bit more, and ghostly shenanigans occur? These are the things I think about in the depths of Winter!
The seeds of life are still and quiet, waiting for their time to grow, and sometimes it is the quality of this particular silence that brings Truth. Holding onto their potential, knowing what they will become, the seeds wait for their time. In these tough times, remember that it is only for a season. Know that this too shall pass, and when these troubled times are over, it will be your time to blossom.
Happy Capricorn Season!
“Capricorn”
By Miranda Harrell, 2023
Tea, With Hex
Hello friends, and welcome to "Tea with Hex"! This will be a regularly-occurring column for Midnight Sun focusing on things like news in the greater world of witchcraft/paganism/woo, book reviews, and spicy musings.
Statue representing Janus Bifrons in the Vatican Museums. Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen (2009)
January is named for the Roman god Janus, whose name is etymologically related to the Latin word for "door", ianua. Janus was an interesting Roman god, one of the few who was not stolen borrowed from the Greeks, and renamed. He was proudly venerated as a uniquely Roman deity. His identity was his own. How refreshing that must feel, to be able to embrace one's identity without having it conflated or confused or inappropriately labeled as something else.
I'm taking my cue from The Things That Talk To Me to capitalize on this very Janusarian occasion and discuss identity. Note, I did not say "labels". Those are different, and once again, a subject easily conflated with something else. Labels and identities are not the same things.
No, read that again, please. Maybe one more time, for good measure. Drink something.
Now we may continue.
No one in this life can tell you what your truth is. Nay, in fact that is House Kheperu's motto, "seek your own truth". That may feel very frustrating, when we don't know what our truth is, or how to seek it in the first place, who we are, or what we're even doing here on this chunk of rock hurtling through space. In the course of our lives, we try on a variety of different hats, searching for at least one that fits. Son, husband, partner, manager, witch, magician, vampire, gay, straight, pansexual. A few of them may stick, and within your heart of hearts, a hazy shape begins to coalesce and define itself based on these descriptors and all the cultural (and personal) subtext surrounding them. These are our identities, the truths that we unlock within ourselves and claim as part of our persona and our power.
““I don’t label myself, I’m just me.””
There was a very interesting trend that started a few years ago, and I still see commentary like this today. "I don't label myself, I'm just me." See, there's this weird mix-up again between labels and identity. Labels are things we put on other people (usually without their consent, but that's a whole different article). What you decide to claim for yourself is your identity. That shit is powerful, because it comes from you, not somebody else's flawed perception of you. You can see yourself quite clearly, you know what you're about. Standing in your own truth, acknowledging exactly who and what you are, and roaring it to the very ramparts of the heavens…that's a transcendent experience. Indeed, mystery cults in antiquity were sometimes founded over less.
And as for the folks who use phrases like "identity politics," well. If you find my identity somehow threatening, that sounds like a you-problem and not a me-problem there, homeskillet. U mad, bro?
Heh, drink something.
Identities help us tap into all kinds of things, from archetypal representations of things pulled out of the collective unconscious, to our ancestors of path or blood, to past lives, and beyond. The concept of identity stretches back into time immemorial, when our first self-aware ancestors realized they were separate and distinct from one another. This is how we find our truth: by finding who we are. Inscribed upon the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi were the words "Know Thyself", and while it is an excellent maxim, less often do you hear what was inscribed within the room of the sibyls themselves:
“Identities help us tap into all kinds of things, from archetypal representations of things pulled out of the collective unconscious, to our ancestors of path or blood, to past lives, and beyond.”
The temple of Apollo (the centre of the Delphi oracle and Pythia) dated to the 4th century BC. Photo by Helen Simonsson.
"I warn you, whoever you are, oh! You who want to probe the "Arcana of Nature", that if you do not find within yourself that which you are looking for, you shall not find it outside either! If you ignore the excellences of your own house, how do you pretend to find other excellences? Within you is hidden the treasure of treasures! Know Thyself, and you will know the Universe and the Gods."
Now that's a prayer.
And as we awaken to ourselves, we serve to awaken the very world.
Im Khaibit
Night of Shades
Excerpt from the Tome of the Darkside Ritualist
It is a common turn of phrase in many circles that 'the veil thins' at certain times of the year. The phrase often implies that the dead, the spirit world, or even subtle energies from elsewheres are easier to reach and, in some cases, overlap with the here and now. Whatever the belief may be, the practice of reaching across some indiscernible distance to connect or reconnect to those who are no longer with us is a part of the Kheprian tradition as well.
Night of Shades, held close to the 1st of February, honors our ancestors, our beloved dead, and goes beyond merely acknowledging them. Im Khaibit highlights our active work with our Disembodied, those Kheprians who do not inhabit bodies and spirit individuals to whom we have shared connection to from lifetime to lifetime. Many of our Disembodied are present amongst us, taking up work alongside those of us in the flesh.
We honor our Disembodied
Many were once inhabited the flesh as we do now and will inhabit it again. We will eventually stand as they stand now, as Disembodied, and they will help us as we help them.
What does this ritual look like? It is deceptively simple and yet, it is deeply impactful. At a glance, the rite is one where we recite the names (if known) of those Disembodied that we all work with. Often as individuals work and walk along their Path in the House, Disembodied make themselves known and sometimes share a name. We acknowledge the work they have done, taking time to give them thanks for their efforts, and then those of us in the flesh make an offering of energy to further support them and give gratitude to each.
The offering of energy is not unlike many practices around the world that honor ancestors. We light candles for them. We give offerings of food, water, or whatever we may feel called to offer to them. As Kheprians, we understand that the energy of an offering is the subtle stuff that nourishes our Disembodied. We give the energy, the intention, and the vibrancy of being within a body to them to continue to sustain them.
Im Khaibit. Night of Shades. It is a celebration of the dead and the last Darkside ritual before the Transition. Although we walk in winter still, we know that spring will soon come. The time of darkness wanes, reminding Kheprians that even death isn't forever. We know that one day we will be those spirits, standing next to those in bodies, guiding and guarding them as they continue to do the work in their lifetimes.
— Cat ‘Abri’ Rogers
Darkside Ritualist, House Kheperu
Chinese New Year 2023
The Year of the Rabbit
by Suz Tabares
It is almost Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year or Spring Festival. This is the most important festival in China and a major event in many other East Asian countries and larger Western cities with a growing Asian population. This is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the Chinese lunisolar calendar, and is traditionally a time to honor deities and ancestors.
It has also become a time to feast and visit family members. Legend states that the Chinese New Year stemmed from an ancient battle against the Nian, a terrifying beast that showed up every Lunar New Year's Eve to eat people and livestock. To scare away the monster, people displayed red paper, burned bamboo, lit candles, and wore red clothing. These traditions have continued until the present time.
The date of the Chinese New Year is determined by the Chinese lunar calendar and though the date changes every year it always falls somewhere in the period between January 21st and February 20th. This year Chinese New Year is on Sunday, January 22nd. Celebrations of Chinese New Year traditionally last for 16 days, starting from Chinese New Year's Eve to the Lantern Festival. The lunar calendar follows a 12-year cycle and every year is represented by an animal based on the Chinese Zodiac. The 12-year cycle also follows the five elements of nature arranged in order: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. Each Chinese year is associated with an animal according to the Chinese zodiac cycle. 2023 is the year of the Rabbit, specifically, Water-Rabbit. The sign of Rabbit is a symbol of longevity, peace, and prosperity in Chinese culture and can also mean relaxation, fluidity, quietness, and contemplation.
2023 is predicted to be a year of hope.
Every culture that celebrates the Lunar New Year has lasting customs and traditions that they follow. Cleaning their houses before the Spring Festival symbolizes sweeping away the previous year's bad luck, preparing their homes to receive good luck. Red is the main color for the festival, as red is believed to be an auspicious color for the Lunar New Year, denoting prosperity and energy — which ward off evil spirits and negativity. Red lanterns hang in the streets; red couplets and New Year pictures are pasted on doors.
Regional customs and traditions vary widely but share the same theme: ushering out the old year and welcoming in the luck and prosperity of the new. Honoring the dead is a Chinese New Year’s tradition and many people visit Ancestors' graves offering sacrifices before dinner to symbolize their Ancestors "eating" first. The New Year's Eve meal is called the reunion dinner and often an extra glass and place is set for the Ancestors' at the table. Big families of several generations enjoy food and time together. Certain dishes are eaten to ensure good luck for the coming year. Chinese dumplings and fish symbolise wealth and prosperity. Noodles represent happiness and longevity, while meatballs mean family unity.
This is a season of red envelopes which traditionally contain money. Those who receive a red envelope are wished another safe and peaceful year. Other popular Lunar New Year gifts are alcohol, tea, fruits, and candies. On the night of the Lantern Festival streets are decorated and billions of fireworks go up to scare away evil and welcome the new year's arrival at 12 am. Lion dances and dragon dances are widely seen in China and Chinatowns in many Western countries during the Lunar New Year period. They are performed to bring prosperity and good luck for the upcoming year and event.
Chinese New Year Superstition: Things You Mustn't Do Traditional belief is that the way you start the year affects it's outcome, so Spring Festival is a season of superstitions. It's believed that what something looks like (color, shape), and what its name sounds like, gives it auspicious or ill-fated significance. There are many things you cannot do during the season. If you sweep up on New Year's Day you could sweep all your luck away. Don't eat porridge for breakfast or you may welcome poverty to your door. Washing your clothes and hair on New Year’s might 'wash your fortune away'.
In todays social climate there is much debate on the difference between Appreciation and Appropriation. I am blessed with a family froth with several cultures and traditions and we choose to celebrate the Lunar New Year with a big family dinner, homemade dumplings, laughter and love of all cultures. So please join me in Appreciation of the Chinese traditional New year, gather family and honor the Ancestors, eat dumplings and noodles and be sure to ring in the Lunar New Year with a Bang!
