The Monster Ball

How to Invite Your Monsters to a Masked Ball

Your Mask holds the Key

It always starts with costumes this time of year. Dressing up is a big part of the Halloween tradition. Tradition is important. It anchors us in the bigger story of who we have been. It gives us a sense of continuity of being part of a lineage of ancestry that stretches back through time.

The story of this time of year is that the veil is thin between our ordinary world and the secret world. That we can cross over into the shadow realms.

And thus, the shadow realms could cross over into our world as well.

Masks were used at this haunting time of year to help us disguise ourselves from those spirits who might have mischief or malice in mind. We can even disguise ourselves from our own Monsters with a mask. Become a superhero or a mystic wizard who can hold their own against any monstrous force.

A masquerade is what is needed this time of year.

This implies pageantry and spectacle. More than just a party with costumes and dancing. There is thought put into what kind of character you will disguise yourself as. After all, the stakes are high this time of year. The Monsters are on the prowl, and your mask will protect you from their unwanted attention.

Who will you be as Masquerade You?

I plan to be a witch, as I have always been a witch. This is my tradition and lineage. I will dress to dance to the music played by the Monster Band. The most monstrous Monster band in the land.

Storyspinner Step 8 is always about arriving. You’ve found the treasure on Storyspinner Step 7 and now you rest and rejoice. Or you haven’t found the treasure. And you rest and regroup.

Either way, this is a Having Day of the Being-Doing-Having equation. Because celebration happens when we root into the season, honor our traditions, and count our blessings.

We have fun.

I have not yet found the treasure, so today is a rest and regroup day. But I have an inkling of what the treasure is now, so some quiet rejoicing is also happening. A sense of relief. Because finding treasure each month is not guaranteed.

Or maybe it is. Standing in the season — which is really what each of these monthly Storyspinning games is all about — is its own treasure.

My challenge is that I want to stand in it with everyone else. I don’t want to do this alone.

So I want to invite you to play. You are invited to the Monster Ball. Gather your Monsters and costume up to attend this gala of Monster Managing celebration.

Find Five Monsters, your Monsters who will make music for the Witches to dance. The Witches must dance for Halloween to happen.

This is tradition. And tradition is what celebration is often about. We are celebrating the Autumn Season and the Witches’ New Year. Where we honor the Moon. And Harvest. And the ancestors. And what scares us.

Darkness. Decay. Disillusion. Death. The storyweb has made a turning into Autumn and we begin to move our gatherings indoors. This is one last time to be outside before the winter snows come, and any lengthy outdoor jubilation requires physical exertion and many many layers of warm clothing.

At this autumnal zenith, we can dance outside, and carve pumpkins to light our path into the darkness. We can hide our bright light behind a dark mask so we can pass as fellow specters through the shadow realms.

But don’t dally. Stand in this darkest moment of the wheel, and then move along towards the upcoming festivals celebrating the returning light. Remember why we celebrate. To fully inhabit each moment. To mark these cycles and seasons to have a rich sensory journey through the seasons of our life.

We are preparing for our own deaths, and celebrating them. We do this at the end of each Day, each Moon, each Autumn. It is the way of our world. The more we embrace it with our most open-hearted jubilation, the easier and richer this life becomes.

This is the treasure. This celebration of Now.