Tag Archives: Halloween

The Devil’s in the Details

This mask does not actually represent the Devil/Lucifer/Satan, but it is an interpretation of one of the venerable Horned Deities or Daemons who are often mistaken for the Devil by Christians, Wiccans and other occult magic practitioners. Created for an event during the Imbolc festival, this hand-held mask was made by Alice Aroumbeyski as a modern accessory matched to an antique costume representing a member of the Wild Hunt. The costume was made in the nineteenth century, in Aberystwyth, Wales, by an unknown artisan; it was regularly displayed in the collections of the Habiliments Guild Muotimuseo. Oliverio Matagati, brother to Haleya Matagati, borrowed it (for a fee) from the Muotimuseo and hired Alice to make the mask. The mask portrays a character named Jicamyladrewlta (please don’t ask me to attempt a pronunciation), a cunning, slightly deranged, yet surprisingly generous ghost rider and part-time psychopomp.

Here’s a little more of the story we started in my last post, about Oliverio Matagati’s sister:

No one was surprised when the Matagati matriarch huffed herself out of Alice’s studio in a dudgeon, leaving without the costume Alice had made for her, and without paying the price she was contractually obligated to pay. Haleya Matagati may have felt perfectly entitled her feelings caused by Alice’s affront to her dignity; however, she was committing a serious breach of etiquette within the Killikunda Mahun. She had flouted two major rules of the Habiliments Guild. First, she had insulted the work of one of their artists, directly to their face. (You can, if you are clever enough, and witty enough, insult their work, but not in their presence.) Second, she had failed to pay.

Under such circumstances, according to the rules, Alice Aroumbeyski was permitted to take revenge suitable to the offense.

There are a few panels in the published annals of Geranium Lake Properties that include a reference to the retribution Alice Aroumbeyski exacted from Matron Matagori, but the story was never actually told. I have come across pieces of that story in Yost’s journals, and I have begun an attempt to put them together into a cohesive narrative. We will have to see if I can make a satisfactory tale out of it.

As part of this October’s Halloween fun, I will be posting a few masks for you to print out and color:

A Month of Masks

October snuck up on me. I was sufficiently happy to meander along in September-mode, when half way through my day, I realized that it was the first day of October. The Halloween Month! A month that provides the perfect thematic excuse to post some of the many masks found in Geranium Lake Properties.

So many masks, so little time.

In today’s post we have two masks designed by Alice Aroumbeyski for Hoccurnan Towissakos, a chieftain of the Moss Folk, self-styled as the Druid King.

Marigold Day

It is a custom among jackalopes, but not an official Inultaru tradition, to begin celebrating their version of Halloween/Day of the Dead on October 27th, the ninth day after the holiday called Poppy Panda Monium, which exists for three purposes: 1. Eating delicacies packed with poppy seeds. 2. Appreciating a universe in which pandas exist. 3. Providing a starting point from which to count down nine days to Elikolcha.

Eating (feasting), appreciating (gratitude) and providing (gift-giving) are pretty much the three standard traditions for any Jackalopian celebration. November 2nd, All Souls Day, is the official holiday for Elikolcha, aka Marigold Day. Jackalopes honor the day by drinking coffee (preferably in their favorite diners) and consuming small brown butter cakes (called kolchi, singular is kolchitzju) made with bourbon or rum, decorated with bright orange marigolds made with thick buttercream icing. There is a version of fried kolchi without icing that is served with powdered sugar or cranberry syrup, often plated with a side of back bacon or mild Danish sausages.

I hope you have noticed that coffee and diners are sacred to jackalopes. As is chocolate, especially dark chocolate. Chocolate, in fact, has two official holidays of its own: July 7th, Lonely Chocolate Day, and December 4th, Friends With Chocolate Day. The coffee holiday is Kopje Modder Dag, Cup of Mud Day, which will be on January 16th in 2022, the same day as Nothing Day, in which we can honor my favorite activity, doing nothing. Kopje Modder Dag is always on a Sunday, so the date changes every year. It requires some effort on my part to keep track of Jackalopian holidays with variable dates, some depend on solstices, or equinoxes, or full moons, but for you that’s no problem! You can consult the Official 2022 Geranium Lake Properties Calendar.

The Masks of Jack Loki

My idea for this year’s Halloween post occurred to me late. I intended to observe the holiday with the last post about the Poe series, yesterday’s Poppy Garden post, and an upcoming marigold-themed panel for the Day of the Dead on November 2nd. The realization that I could make a retrospective of the many masquerades of Jack Loki, professional gallywagger, crackerjack bryologist, and erstwhile protagonist of Geranium Lake Properties, came to me last night. This also gives me a chance to share the above GLP comic, something I meant to do way back in June, for Hood and Mitre Day. Which is a day that gives you the opportunity for the recherché joy of donning your best hood or wimple, putting on your most ornamental mitre, and pretending you are the Pope of the Sacrum Romanum Imperium.

And then for Halloween, you can be the Antipope, and you won’t need to get yourself a new costume.

The Jackalope Mask
Still life with jackalope
The Jackalope’s Smile
Vouchsafe radium unto the lilacs
Jackalope totem
Spoken under the aegis

Hollow Carotenoid Sunset, v. 2

We do not have dramatic dips in temperature or a lot of fiery leaf color during fall in my part of California, but this has been one of the most inconspicuous autumns that I can remember. The nights have grown colder, yet the upcoming week will hardly have a nip in the air. The prediction is for a series of temperatures in the 80’s. It would be nice weather for the trick-or-treaters but because of the pandemic, I’m sure the presence of those phantoms will be sparse or non-existent. Halloween will be a porch-light-off affair this year. I thought of keeping the light on and having a bag of candy at hand for the few intrepid hopefuls that may ring my doorbell. Unfortunately, during this election season I have encountered too many examples of my fellow Americans who do not give a damn about me. Which has left me feeling petulant and selfish, and I don’t wish to share my chocolate with their children.

6EQUJ5

Bagri Maro and the Matacaballos


Bagri Maro is the hero of Tales of a Horse Scorpion, a series of novels by Raymond Lully. The setting of the novels is a future Earth where humans have become extinct and the world is dominated by five races of intelligent arthropods. Wm. Yost said he encountered the work of Raymond Lully in his early teens, when he saw the novels in a comic book, in a depiction of Dr. Strange’s library by Steve Ditko.

Periphery View with a Betokened Apparition


…and finally, the GLP Halloween offering for 2017. This comic is based on one of my visual poems, “The Jolly Crowded House Dream”, which you can view in its entirety as a poster or as a t-shirt. I will continue to offer these kinds of products as long as it’s fun for me to see my visual poetry as apparel on computer models. The various posters, art prints, mini-skirts, mugs, etc. are not limited editions according to a strict definition of the term, but if anyone purchased something, they would own a one-of-a-kind or extremely limited edition by circumstances. The circumstances mostly depend on my patience for the lessons in humility I receive from these types of online marketplaces. They are valuable lessons, I guess, but not materially remunerative.

© 2017 lcmt