- tavabaird
- Feb 4
- 7 min read
Hello, everyone!
If you clicked on this post you're one of the people who goes, "Ooooohhh...haunted stuff". Welcome to our club of people who aren't freaked out by dolls, or are and kinda like the rush.
I started this project as a Lilithian upcycling practice. And oh, how it has grown.
There are approximately forty dolls in various states of undress strewn all over the studio. I'm creating a log book entry for each one: where I acquired it, what state it was in, anything about its brand or creation that I can find, and...whether I see evidence of it already having been haunted or not. Lots are coming in with residual energy still attached.
A few of them actually MOVE.
It is my experience (and many other people's) that the Unembodied are attracted to the little bodies of dolls as homes or hotels. These Spirits often once had a body themselves, and a little place to sit where they can have arms and legs again feels familiar and mighty fine. And for those of us with bodies who want to speak to the unseen, the doll gives us a place to focus our energy and conversation. We can express our affection for the spirit by holding the doll. And it appears, in many cases, that the Spirit can feel it.
I haven't seen evidence that the spirits mind heat or cold while visiting the dolls, but I have seen the features on the doll's face respond or seen hands move. One doll you'll see below, Holly, makes the rocking chair I have seated her in move, and there are often the sound of small objects in her vicinity falling. Small objects that I cannot find. She's also warm to the touch at times.
My aim is to take a doll that has been cast aside and give it power once more. Reclamation is a big act in Lilithian Magick. I take something no one wanted and put in love, creativity, and hard work until the doll becomes a vessel for Spirit Communication.
Each doll comes with a little certificate certifying it and a 13 page little guide pamphlet hand-sewn by me in various patterns of scrapbook paper to make it unique. The pamphlet contains a Lilithian Consecration Ritual for if you intend to use the doll in Spirit Communication, and a few pages of ways to begin to reach out to the Unseen. If you'd like to own one of these dolls they, and others like them, are available in my etsy shop.
The proceeds from the dolls go to pay for tuition and materials for Pagan students who want to take Darkflower classes or attend events but are on a limited income. This way I can keep doing what I am doing and people who need a bit of a financial boost can still participate in the more expensive events. And you get a tool for speaking to the Dead! Everybody wins!
Here are the first three in the project.
DOLL #1: JOY
Joy was found in the Goodwill in Frederick, MD, smashed under a pile of much larger dolls on a dusty shelf. She is porcelain and cloth and 8" tall. She has no maker's mark. Someone had chopped her hair to pieces, and glued a bunch of it together (I suspect she had a hat on at one point.) She was a bit lopsided in her body, and her head felt very large for her body structure. And she was pretty darn dirty and missing a shoe. I scooped her up.
I took her home, and could feel residual loving, enthusiastic energy bouncing around in her. Perhaps she had been loved at some point by someone young. I took her outfit off and washed her and spoke quietly to her in case there was a spirit attached that was a bit shy.
Then I assessed what parts of the outfit were going to stay and what was going to go. Her dress was torn. I stitched it, but decided to leave the stitches visible to mark her journey. Then I put her clothes into the dye bath.
I wanted to give her dramatic, powerful eyebrows and eyes and gothic lipstick. And the hair went up into a Beetlejuice-inspired hair wrap. I like that her curls look a bit frazzled. I added a bumblebee necklace because by now I had picked up that there was a lot of sweet, childlike energy in her. I grabbed a stand from another doll that fit her.
And I gave her a pet bunny Harvey, so that she wouldn't have to be alone again.
Here she is now:
She is signed on her body on the back and labelled 1/?
Joy can be adopted at https://darkflowerbooks.etsy.com in the Tava's Haunted Dollhouse section.
DOLL #2: ADELE
If you are looking for a Spirit Communication Doll that blends in so no one becomes suspicious of your activities but still holds LOTS of attitude, here is Adele. I don't usually work with anything but porcelain and cloth dolls, but Adele is an exception.
She was hanging inside a plastic bag at the Frederick Goodwill. I picked up the bag, saw she wasn't porcelain, and put her back.
Correction: I TRIED to put her back. I'm not sure exactly what happened to change my mind, but Adele went home with me despite the fact that she was priced about three times higher than what I usually pay for dolls. I was still questioning it in the parking lot.
Adele is a Madame Alexander Doll (so made of jointed plastic) and her costume started off French. She was actually in really good shape. But I stripped her down and gave her a very thorough cleaning anyway. She's just 7" tall and cute as a button.
When I first took her out of the bag her pants fell right off. I ended up switching them with Joy's, so that both would have better fitting items.
I wanted to give her dark lipstick and a hat (I really feel that she is a hat person), and I wondered what that dress would do in a black dye bath. AND IT IS NOW MY FAVORITE THING!
Goth Dolly, you've stolen my heart!
As for her energy...I mean, something made me override my judgement in that store and spend more than I wanted on a doll that didn't fit my parameters. And she has PRESENCE. Not certain exactly what the deal is here. I'll leave whomever adopts her to figure it out. Maybe she's waiting for you and I was just the transportation mechanism?
She is signed on her body on the back and labelled 2/?
Adele can be adopted at https://darkflowerbooks.etsy.com in the Tava's Haunted Dollhouse section.
DOLL #3: HOLLY
Okay, people, Holly is just straight-up haunted. STRAIGHT UP. I knew it from even before I picked her up. Her energy is INTENSE.
Writing this post was difficult because pictures of her had trouble loading, and I'd also get weird computer flickers when writing about her. Power flux? or Holly?
I might have said power if it wasn't for the other stuff.
I seated her in a rocking chair. The chair moves. I've put her in one position to come back and find she's facing a different direction when I lie her on a table. Things randomly fall in her area. I say "things" because I hear something small clattering but can find nothing missing or on the floor. This has happened over and over again in the time I have had her.
She will go randomly warm at times. Her mouth twitches. And the other night, as I was debating whether or not she needed more clothes, I very clearly had the strong urge to crochet her a sweater. I have never crocheted...oh, shit, there goes the rocking chair again (she's seated in it off to my left).
I've never crocheted doll clothes before, and have largely given up crocheting. but I hear her say very clearly in my head that she wanted it. She picked out her button from my stash, too. Told me she didn't want shoes anymore.
Had me order her new socks.
The rocking chair is clearly too big for her, but she has made it HERS. I guess it comes with her?
She is larger, at 12.5" tall. She is porcelain with a cloth body. When I got her, her pants were on inside out (???)
I cleaned her up, gave her some dramatic face paint (with a symbol Samael told me to place there...he said it helps balance the energy of The Dead), gave her an up-do with some little silk flowers, hand-dyes all her clothes, gave her a lace neck wrap, crocheted her a sweater, and painted her nails. To say she has opinions would be an understatement.
The attached Spirit has not introduced itself by name. I'm not sure if it is there all the time or pops in and out. But it LOVES to move things, and there's this constant compulsion I feel to make sure the doll is comfortable and well-protected. Among the 40 or so in my studio, she is one of the ones that stands WAY out.
No negative energy is detected, but if you startle easily you might want a different doll. Sudden movement and sounds abound.
I adore Holly and hope she finds the perfect home. Pretty certain someone else we can't see will be coming along with her. You're going to find yourself talking to this one.
She is signed on her body on the back and labelled 3/?
Holly can be adopted at https://darkflowerbooks.etsy.com in the Tava's Haunted Dollhouse section.
Thank you for coming on this journey with me! Stay tuned for more dolls. There will be a bunch travelling with me to The Undead of Winter Dark Arts and Oddities Market in Milton, PA on Valentine's weekend if you would like to meet some in person.
Some people have written saying they have an old porcelain and cloth doll kicking around their house that they don't know what to do with because of its energy and will I accept a donation? The answer is YES, if you don't mind that the doll may be altered and re-homed at some point. Drop me a message and let's chat!
Thank you for coming on this adventure with me!
