Have You?

“Beware the autumn people. For some, autumn comes early, stays late, through life, where October follows September and November touches October and then instead of December and Christ’s birth there is no Bethlehem Star, no rejoicing, but September comes again and old October and so on down the years, with no winter, spring or revivifying summer. For these beings, fall is the only normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond.

Where do they come from? The dust. Where do they go? The grave. Does blood stir their veins? No, the night wind. What ticks in their head? The worm. What speaks through their mouth? The toad. What sees from their eye? The snake. What hears with their ear? The abyss between the stars.

They sift the human storm for souls, eat flesh of reason, fill tombs with sinners. They frenzy forth. In gusts they beetle-scurry, creep, thread, filter, motion, make all moons sullen, and surely cloud all clear-run waters. The spider-web hears them, trembles—breaks. Such are the autumn people. Beware of them.”

— Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Image: “Autumn People” by Frank Frazetta.

Grimalkin & the Cat Sìth

Grimalkin (also spelled a Greymalkin) is an archaic term that was often used to describe cats; particularly haggard, female cats. The term stems from the color “grey" and the archaic word "malkin", which was a term with various meanings and was derived from a hypocoristic form of the given name Maud. Debate surrounds the etymological evolution of the term from woman to cat, but regardless, Grimalkin eventually came to be referenced in Scottish legend as a Faerie Cat that prowled the highlands. Though mythological sources are scarce, The Grimalkin is consistently identified with the Cat Sìth (or Cat Sidhe) of Celtic folklore, and is generally represented as a demon or shapeshifter. In line with Celtic Faerie-lore, Grimalkin is described as a Spectral Cat the size of a wolf or horse, who stalks the Scottish hills and moors.

According to legend, the Cat Sìth is said to appear as a large black cat with a white spot on its chest. Further cementing the role of Grimalkin as a ferocious Faerie of the Cat Sìth is the fact that virtually all Scottish legends surrounding the beings make reference to their size, ferocity, and propensity for the highlands. Some of the more common folklore suggested that the Cat Sìth was not a faerie at all, but, in fact, a witch who could transform into a feline guise nine times. The tales indicate that, while a witch could transform freely between her humanoid and feline forms, she had only eight opportunities to do so; if she were to transform a ninth time, she would be doomed to spend the rest of her days as a cat. It is believed by some that the idea of a cat having nine lives originated with this folkloric concept.

As with the dangerous reputation of the Grimalkin, the people of the Scottish Highlands were often untrusting of the Cat Sìth. This was largely, in part, because it was believed that a Cat Sìth was able steal a person's soul before it could be claimed by the gods, needing only to pass over a corpse before burial to claim the soul for its own. Therefore, protective watches called the Feill Fadalach (Late Wake) were performed through both night and day, in order to keep at bay any Cat Sìth that might appear to claim a person’s spirit. Methods of "distraction" were frequently employed to keep the Cat Sìth away from the room that housed the body of the deceased, such as games of leaping and wrestling, offerings of catnip, musical performance, and the telling of riddles. Aditionally, no fires were to be lit in the vicinity of the body, as it was widely believed that, much like mundane cats, the Cat Sìth were attracted to the warmth. Even though most folk in the region were distrusting of the Cat Sìth, certain rites were to be performed in their honor. On Samhain, for instance, it was said that a Cat Sìth would bestow blessings upon any house that left out a saucer of milk for it to drink. Those who did not leave offerings of milk, however, were at risk of being cursed by the Sìth with scarcity; particularly in the form of their cows’ milk running dry. Contrasted with their menacing reputation throughout the Scottish highlands, one of the less daunting accounts the Faerie Cat can be found in the British folktale “The King of the Cats.” In it, a man comes home to his wife and housecat, Old Tom, and explains enthusiastically that he had seen nine black cats with white spots on their chests carrying a coffin topped with a crown. The man relays that one of the cats told him to "Tell Tom Tildrum that Tim Toldrum is dead." The cat then exclaims, "What?! Old Tim dead! Then I'm the King o' the Cats!" before climbing up the chimney to never be seen again. It would seem, then, that the vast majority of the tales regarding the Cat Sìth which might lend themselves to the figure of Grimalkin arose in Scottish folklore.

Another practice related to the Cat Sìth, which illustrates certain connections to the Grimalkin, is the grizzly ceremony that was known as the Taghairm. Sometimes translates as "spirit echo," the Taghairm was an ancient Scottish method of divination reviled throughout much of the Hebrides. The defined requirements of the ceremony varied, but always involved the torture of animals or people, and sometimes included animal sacrifice. One variation of the Taghairm, aiming to raise the Devil for the sake of fulfilling dark wishes, called for the roasting of live cats, one after the other, for several days without eating or sleeping. This was said to summon a horde of shrieking devils who appeared as black cats, with their master at their helm. Another version of the ritual was said to summon a Great Demonic Cat known as “Mòra Cluasan” (Big Ears,) who would answer any question and grant any wish of the summoner. Both these variations on the Hebridean ceremony make reference to a mighty demonic cat, vicious even amongst the Cat Sìth, which ties in clearly to multiple aspects of the figure known as Grimalkin.

While reading a Norse magical text, I once came across multiple references to Grimalkin, or Grimalkyn, in Scandinavian mythology and folklore. However, I have not been able to find any source to corroborate that mythological connection as of yet.

I think about my ancestors all the time. They were people, people who fell in love, people who had pets, people who had a favorite book, people who were passionate about a specific topic, people who went through their own tragedy and suffering. Every single one of them was a person with their own unique life experiences.

And sometimes I think of the really old ones- the ones who spoke languages that are no longer spoken, who lived alongside wildlife that no longer exist, who belonged to cultures that are only known through remnants of pottery. I think of the people who saw the world when it was wilder and more beautiful.

Native Land

I like my Chicanos but Mexican Americans have got to stop with the whole “the Southwest is Mexican land”, yes Mexico owned it before the US but it was ALWAYS Native land before Mexico & the US even existed. My peoples, the Tarahumaras, Otomis, Purepechas, Chichimecas, etc ancestral territory was never in the Southwest. It always belonged to the Hopi, O'odham, Pueblo nations and the surrounding people. You have to respect that.

St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Missouri, October 31, 1918

the great pumpkin 🎃

My girlfriend and I talk a lot about our different generations of queerness, because she was doing queer activism in the 1990s and I wasn’t.

And she’s supportive of my writing about queerness but also kind of bitter about how quickly her entire generation’s history has disappeared into a bland “AIDS was bad, gay marriage solved homophobia” narrative, and now we’re having to play catch-up to educate young LGBTQ+ people about queer history and queer theory. It gets pretty raw sometimes.

I mean, a large part of the reason TERFs have been good at educating the young and queer people haven’t is, in the 80s and 90s the leading lights of TERFdom got tenured university positions, and the leading lights of queerdom died of AIDS.

“Excuse us,” she said bitterly the other day, not at me but to me, “for not laying the groundwork for children we never thought we’d have in a future none of us thought we’d be alive for.”

Made a small zine ✨ Venus approves 🐱

You said “Black Lives Matter”.

Well mine is on the line.

If everyone who sees this donates $1, I can meet my goal in no time:

gofundme.com

Help Juani Home, organized by Juani B

Things are looking very bleak for me; I should have been out of my apartment in March and am technically squat… Juani B needs your support f

Please do not pass this without at least reblogging. Please do not hinder me from recieving all possible help I can get. Thank you.