- tavabaird
- Oct 10, 2024
- 10 min read
Hey Everyone! I have a little something special for you that you might like if you can use a little healing and relaxation.....
On the Mystical Musings Podcast this week, we begin a discussion on Angelic Guides and Healing. And there's our first ever bonus content this week, which is a twenty minute Angel healing Experience by Jennifer Taylor of Willow Ridge Reiki and Healing Arts. Just a warning: this may put you to sleep, so don't listen to the healing content while driving. Find both the episode and the healing session for free here:
We'll be continuing the Angel talk next week on the next episode with a channeled discussion on Metatron - we've never done a question and answer fully channeled episode with Samael before and had no idea how the grand experiment would go....and it rocked our world. Get ready for some VERY deep thinking on numbers, time, space, numerology, and METATRON next week, and watch us try to wrap out human minds around Angelic revelations in real time!
There's some awesome upcoming events that Darkflower will be at over the next three weekends if you are in the area!
OCTOBER 12: CRYPTID and CURIOSITY MARKET at Unique Creations in Berryville, VA, 10-3. More info here: https://www.facebook.com/UniqueCreationsStudiollc/
OCTOBER 13: HARVEST MARKET at BREAUX VINEYARDS near Round Hill, VA. Food! Music! Vendors! Wine! 11-6, and more info here: https://www.breauxvineyards.com/events/harvest-festival-b/
and then......
RAVENWOOD FAIRE!!!!!!!! A Medieval Faire with all the trimmings! Pull out your garb and come join us!
Two full weekends! Friday the 18th through Sunday the 20th and Friday the 25th through the 27th in Clear Brook, VA....right around the corner from the Inn! Frederick County VA Fairgrounds! All the details are here: https://ravenwoodfaire.us/
Huzzah!
UPCOMING DIG DATES at the BLUE BALL INN
This Saturday, October 12, 9 am -12:30. Nate will be leading the dig!
Monday, October 14, 9 am-12:30. Tava (that's me!) will be leading the dig!
Tuesday, October 29, 9 am-12:30. Tava will be leading the dig!
Want to come volunteer to excavate at the haunted Inn on one of these dates? Message me through the site or through Facebook....send a message to tavabaird!
There are lots of paranormal tours going on at the Inn at this time of year.....find info on how to join on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/blue.ball.inn.1747/ and keep up with the latest happenings at https://www.tiktok.com/@blue.ball.inn.1747
Stay spooky, everyone!
A Little Medusa and Lilith for Your Day.......
And now...a little glimpse of a chapter from the sequel to The Ballad of Birdie MacLeod, titled The Angel and the Blackbird, only available to you lovely website members! Haven't read Birdie MacLeod yet, and looking for something witchy and ghostly to read this Samhain season? Find the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Ballad-Birdie-MacLeod-Faerie-Between-ebook/dp/B0CTGPM16T/ref=sr_1_1?crid=DOJH3N25Q15V&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.dhL_KZksOvQpv87aTCYDTA.nRyPSZ52ZsvUkv3BOBZVEo_WRunMPpRzGgde7FbKXL4&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+ballad+of+birdie+macleod&qid=1728615735&s=books&sprefix=the+ballad+of+birdie+macleod%2Cstripbooks%2C86&sr=1-1
from THE GORGON'S LAIR by Tava Baird
The Gorgon, sole remaining mistress of the Element of Air, shifted forward in her chair inside the darkness of the cave, her eyes fixed on the spherical stone before her.
Shift your gaze. Look beyond.
Her father had taught her this. Taught her how to use this invention of his, and so much more.
Show me. Let me see my borders. A god's blood runs in my veins.
The stone lit up from the inside, a smashing of sparks against the arcing interior surface. She could feel the magick in the room change, and the atmospheric adjustments it made to the air. Cooler, now. A breeze where there should be none.
The candlelight reflected off the rugged, rutted walls of the cave. The rocks had been carved by the elements she had brought to bear, leaving behind a ribbed surface that put one in mind the patterning of a serpent's belly. I am in this realm. As once this realm was in me.
“I am Medusa,” she said to the ball on the stand before her, “Gorgon of the Eastern Fae. Heed my words in trade for a fragment of your soul. I wish to see the boundaries of the place I command, and all who attempt to cross them.”
The light inside the sphere began to form shapes, and resolve its colors into form and shadow.
And Medusa observed the world she had made.
Waves pounding the shoreline. Forests of pine that spoke in hushed whispers when the wind moved. The blue of mountains, reaching their slopes skyward. An echo of a homeland lost. A re-creation of the tribal lands of the Fae of the East.
She was the last one, now. The last one carrying that peculiar magickal energy in her veins. She hadn't thought that thought would trouble her as much as it had of late. But with her sisters returned to the air through their funeral of incense and smoke, she had found herself alone.
And a new desire had formed in the wake of the passing of their lives. A desire she had never had before.
The picture in the ball morphed into a different view. Not the interior borders of her realm, but the desert barrier space between the exterior wall and the interior. There would be nothing there. There never was.
She had built this world, with its solitary realm inside, in the wake of feigning her own death on Earth. She had made certain to make the tale dramatic so that it would spread, and to cast a man as the hero so that Humans and Fae alike would tend to believe it. She shook her head. Perseus. Idiot. He hadn't understood her science, hadn't understood her magick, and like nearly every male she'd encountered had his head so far up his own arse that even the simplest glamour spell had led him to believe he'd bested her. He'd killed a large serpent, nothing more. But then no one else came looking. And my sisters and I could retire here, to live out our lives in peace.
Her sisters were in fact half-sisters. They had the same Human mother, but their fathers were different. While all three of them were sired by visitors from among the Fae, only Medusa’s father had been a Faegod. Medusa had loved her sisters fiercely. They had held the lineage of the East along with her, their lives the only barriers between her people and extinction. And now she was in this world alone, save for the one visitor whose company she enjoyed.
“Lilith, my love,” she called softly. “I know you're there. I heard you come in. There's no need to wait until I am finished. There's another chair here; come and sit with me.”
And the Queen of Daemons emerged from the shadows.
“Hello, dearest,” came a soft response from behind where Medusa sat, gazing into the ball. “I am sorry to interrupt your work, but I wanted to see how you were faring.” She paused, settling her hand onto the back of Medusa's chair. “Samael sends his love.”
Medusa glanced up at her guest as Lilith took the chair beside her. “It's got blue in it today,” she smiled, gesturing at Lilith's predominately jet-black hair, which was bound into long, flowing tails on both sides of her head. “Very blue. I like it.”
Lilith twirled her fingers through the gathering of tresses on her right side and smiled. “A bit of an accident. An unexpected glitch.” She edged her chair closer to Medusa's. “A soul got tangled, and left behind the color.”
Medusa ran a hand through her own thick, blonde, snake-like locs of hair. “Perhaps I'll need to add a bit of color to mine as well. Violet, or green.”
“Won't we be pretty then, when we put our heads together?” Lilith grinned, flashing her eyes seductively at Medusa as she covered the Gorgon's graceful hand with her own. “Every time we kiss we'll make art.”
Medusa settled her eyes back on the ball. “And how is Samael? Does he know you are here?”
Lilith squeezed Medusa's hand. “Of course he does. He embraced me when I left him and wished me well.” She leaned forward to look more closely at Medusa's lovely face. “You still don't understand that you needn't worry on that front. He's not jealous. He gives me his blessings.”
Medusa made a sound in the back of her throat. “He may say that, but he's a man, Lili. They don't share.”
“But he's not a man,” Lilith countered. “He's a Seraphim.”
Medusa glanced skeptically at her paramour. “You're telling me Angels are incapable of feeling territorial? That's not what I've heard.”
“You have him wrong, my beautiful Medu,” Lilith purred, leaning forward to plant a gentle kiss on Medusa's cheekbone. “All he wants is for me to be happy, just as that's what I want for him. If you spoke to him you'd see. He'd love to meet you.” She sighed. “What a smashingly arousing scene that would be. My Angel of Death and my half-Fae lover in the same room, gazing at each other with affection.” She mimed a slow, starry explosion with her hands. “I'm not sure this world could handle it.”
The pictures in the ball kept changing, and Medusa took note of each. Empty. Empty. Empty. It looked as though the borders of her world were secure, and the energetic barriers functioning as they should. There was nothing in the desert but birds, rodents, cacti, asps and sand. Nothing has made it through the protections. No one has found their way in but Lili.
The picture shifted again. There was someone there.
A figure. A man dressed in black. He was seated cross-legged on the baking desert sand, clad in a long coat and a tricorn hat. His eyes were closed. He sat motionless save for the slight movements of his right hand as he inscribed invisible glyphs in the air.
Medusa’s eyes widened.
“Who in my cherished realm of Hell is that?” Lilith said, peering into the sphere. “What's he doing?”
“Trying to get in,” Medusa growled. “But how did he get this far? And how does he even know of this place?” Her eyes narrowed as she looked closer. “He's testing the barrier. I need to know with what.” She stood up abruptly. “I need to look at something in the laboratory.”
“Shall I bring this?” Lilith said, gesturing and the ball on its stand in front of them. “Or stay here and observe while you are gone?”
“It doesn't like the light,” said Medusa, restless and distracted. “Will you watch him here, please?”
She strode down the tunnel towards her workshop, her long legs moving quickly down the corridor. A magick user. Here, at my world. But how has he found me?
The possibilities cycled through her mind. Obviously not Human. Humans didn't travel on their own away from Earth. Fae, perhaps. Or Elemental. But it would take a tremendous amount of magickal power to breach her outer barrier and reach the desert unscathed. A High Fae, or High Elemental. And they'd have to be a God or Goddess.
Perhaps Lili had been followed in somehow. But she travels to the outer reaches of this world with an escort. She doubted this visitor would have escaped the notice of Lili and two battle-trained Archdaemons if he had been anywhere near them. No, this man in black has arrived on his own. An Angel? But why would an Angel be interested in her, aside from Lilith's consort Samael?
Whomever this intruder was, he possessed incredible magickal defenses. A rare creature of sorts, perhaps, who can shapeshift into the form of a man?
He was very much giving her wardings their first formidable test. This world was well hidden, and she relied on that as a first line of defense. The fact that the stranger knew it existed at all troubled her. And he wants in. But he can't possibly know who resides here.
She arrived at the table containing her shield monitoring devices, and gasped.
The waves of energy between the poles on the scope measuring the types of magickal force being brought to bear on the world's inner shield were astounding. Not just one sort of magic, but several. Fae. Elemental. Daemonic. And sweet holy Hell, even Olympian. There were even hints of Void-dust in there, a force she had witnessed but never seen wielded by a magick-user. He's trying to carve a doorway into my world with an insane range of powers, most of which should not be able to exist alongside each other at the same time.
How was he doing it?
Medusa's curiosity was piqued at the same time that she was horribly alarmed. There's a chance he might get in. A chance. She reached across to another table and grabbed a small screen on a stand and a five-sided object made of layers of green stone, and set up the screen on the table at a ninety-degree angle to the direction of the magickal flow between the two poles of the scope she'd just been observing. Let's look closer. There's Fae magick in there. What kind?
She dropped the stone pentagram into the energy stream, where it tumbled about for a few seconds and then stayed suspended. A red beam shot out of the main river of threaded magick onto the screen and separated itself into spiraling shapes there.
Southern Tribe of The Fae. She was not surprised. Just as the Eastern Fae excelled at scientific experimentation, the Southern Fae's strength was in learning and utilizing magicks non-native to the land of their birth. She peered closer at the screen. He's a God. And there's an intense amount of spirit energy on him.
A Faegod of Ghosts.
She turned and moved quickly out of the laboratory to return to Lilith.
“Dominant race: Fae,” she informed Lilith, rounding the corner into her observation chamber. “But bringing multiple other magicks to bear. Chaotic, Daemonic, Non-Angelic Solomonic, Olympian, Asgardian, Phantasmic, Primordial, and Void, if you can believe that. And there's a few more in there that I haven't had time to look at.”
“Void?” Lilith looked up sharply. “But that's a non-living force! Wouldn't he…implode?”
Medusa stared at the orb on the table. “It shouldn’t be possible for him to hold it, let alone manipulate it. Yes.”
They watched the man in the desert in silence for several moments. Watched his hand moving, and his calm demeanor. Medusa weighed the possibilities.
“Will he be able to get in?” Lilith said, curious. “And how much damage will he cause trying?”
Medusa bit her lip, thinking. “I'm not so much worried about what he breaks. I'm worried that the sheer amount of energy he is putting out may cause this world to draw the attention of other worlds in the vicinity. As you know, I have tried very hard to keep this place hidden. I don't want anyone knowing it exists. But right now his magick and my defenses are generating a large energetic footprint as they counteract each other. That's the first thing that needs to be stopped.”
Lilith gestured at the ball. “Let me go talk to him,” she offered. “Find out who he is, and take the measure of him.” She smiled mischievously. “Perhaps a little chat with him will be revealing.”
Medusa crossed her arms and frowned. “Lili, he managed to find me. He's intelligent. Which worries me more than anything.”
Lilith stood and put her hand against her troubled lover's cheek. “I'm the Queen of Daemons, dear Medu,” she said softly. “And as such, I am not without power or guile myself.”
...................
Happy Samhain, everyone! Stay safe and be well!
