Cross your fingers, bolt the door, draw a circle on the floor
Scatter salt across the path, burn a briar upon the hearthThe winter solstice. The year's longest, darkest night. Folk tales say it's when witches take to the air, hurtling above the asperous hinterlands, weaving between shafts of moonlight as they revel in the sky's icy chill.
Make a sprig of herbage now, garlanding a rowan bough
Trefoil, vervain, John's wort, dill, hinder witches in their willAt midnight they gather in dissolute convocations to celebrate the moment the sun is at its most distant and their dark power holds sway. It's said they cavort with frenetic abandon, chanting unholy catches until they reach a state of consummate delirium.
Cover up the window's cracks with a mix of blood and wax
Hang a length of knotted gut, freshly from a vixen cutOf course, these rituals are concealed by arcane means and therefore all but impossible for the uninvited to experience. In a bid to emulate their delicious exhilaration, then, this year's Wintersolstice mix features twenty aural sorceresses, each bringing a darkly beguiling electronic incantation to add to their cauldron of simmering aetheric cacophony.
Scour a pond and gently pluck two black leeches from their suck
Lest the witches' charms you hear, let one crawl inside each earTwenty tracks, all released during the second half of 2020, by artists including Lucretia Dalt, Dis Fig, Camila Fuchs, Sylvan Esso, Circe, Glüme, Noveller and more. Eighty three minutes of incongruous euphony conjured by women gifted with
die Zauberkunst (helped occasionally by their male familiars).
Or if you're not keen, I've included some helpful hints for keeping witches at bay. Good luck - and careful with those leeches!
The dark advent of
Wintersolstice 2020. Because at this time of year, who doesn't like a good coven version?
Thanks to geometrydaily [.tumblr.com] for the sigil
