Every solstice and equinox my husband and I host a large dinner party for our friends. Or, as near to the date as we can, usually whichever Saturday is closest.

This year was no exception, and though I failed to get a picture of it on Saturday, I did have a go at making Riz Aleister Crowley, Crowley’s recipe for pilaf.

Crowley’s original recipe doesn’t give quantities for the ingredients he lists, so I’ve made my best guess, and detailed my process here. It was delicious.

For the bakers among you, there’s also an awesome shortbread recipe you should totally try out.

This year my husband and I also woke up in the middle of the night to watch the eclipse. we had a great view from our porch, even with various wires strung across our narrow street, and streetlights ablaze. I was surprised to see that we were the only people out that night.

There’s been a lot of kerfuffle about this rare red eclipse occurring on the winter solstice, as it hasn’t done so for several hundred years. It was a beautiful night, and I hope you got to experience it.

Kensington Market is a small neighbourhood in downtown Toronto, and for the past twenty-one years there has been the Kensington Market Festival of Lights, a parade with music, puppets, paper lanterns, a stilt-walker, and crowds of people following along. I try to make it every year; I love it. The picture above is taken from this year’s Festival, with two more shared on my personal blog.

Dinner parties, good food, and a parade to celebrate the sun returning to the world are how I celebrate my winter solstice every year. What are your traditions?

Last year we looked at Mythos themed gifts in “Love that Lovecraft“, this year we’ll see what we can find for that special occultist in your life.

Sure, there’s the usual candles, incense, special rocks and precious metal plates, but what about the unusual?

Cards

The first place to start is, of course, acquiring your own set of OTO Greeting Cards.

This set of six blank cards are suitable for any occasion, and are available from the New Zealand OTO for NZ$20. Cards spotted on LAShTAL.com.

Gifts

AC action figure

Hierax brought this to my attention: a portly, bow-tied Aleister Crowley action figure. So cute.

Not sure where you can pick one up though. They don’t seem to be for sale anywhere. Perhaps eBay?

Baby Cthulhu

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Wicked The word that depicts the response has been searching for the segment

Justin Bieber love of millions is back to you again in concert

Back in July Scarlet Imprint announced their intention to create a line of books “simple affordable paperbacks” which will be published alongside their “hardback and fine editions”.

The editions,  under the heading Bibliothèque Rouge, takes its name from the Bibliothèque Bleue tradition, which “changed the magical and social landscape of Europe by wresting books from the hands of the aristocrats, clerics and middle classes”, by providing simple editions of otherwise prohibitively expensive deluxe editions of certain titles in their catalogue. Continue reading »