Hungry Ghosts, Cicada Swarms, Butterflies, Moths, and Unspeakably Evil Temples!

[kebechet]

Hungry Ghost Moon is live at Alchemy Lab and Trading Post!

 

 

HUNGRY GHOST MOON

On the 14th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the Gates of Hell burst open, and ghosts pour forth from the Nine Darknesses into the sunlit world. To placate the dead, Hell Money is burned, offerings are made, and paper boats and floating lanterns are set out to give comfort and direction to wayward spirits. Though many spirits simply seek out the comforts of their former homes and the company of their loved ones, rancorous spirits also roam the streets, seeking revenge on those who have wronged them before, and after, their deaths. Offerings of sweet rice, ginger candy, sugar cane, smoky vanilla and rice wine mingle with a ghost's perfume of white sandalwood, wisteria, ho wood, ti, white grapefruit, and crystalline musk. This scent is tempered by the presence of ten herbs, woods and resins used in the purification of the spirit. Through this scent, we can release ourselves from sorrow and discontentment, unbinding our souls from the chains that shackle us to our baser needs so we may truly understand and experience compassion, empathy, and joy.

 

Illustration by Julie Dillon!

 

 

 

 

We've got a small addition to Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's RPG line:

 

GNOME

An explosive blend of effervescent golden ginger and black peppercorn with sarsaparilla, gurjum balsam, nutmeg, gear lubricant, and smoke.

 

 

... and a ginormical addition to Black Phoenix Trading Post's Atmosphere line! Hello thar, RPG Atmosphere sprays!

 

+ RPG ATMOSPHERE SPRAYS

These atmosphere sprays (and the accompanying fragrance line at BPAL!) were inspired by the many years that I played pen and paper role-playing games. Each of these atmosphere sprays is inspired by a RPG location trope: Entering a musty crypt? We’ve got the scent for you! Confronting a cult of nefarious evildoers? Shoot a bit of Unspeakbly Evil Temple into the air! Your party is crawling through a wererat-infested sewer? We’ve got that comin’, too.

 

While these scents were created to be used to enhance pen and paper RPG gameplay, they can also be used in your living space to evoke the illusion of a mist-shrouded elven forest, a gnomish workshop, an exotic bazaar, or a lich’s laboratory.

 

The scents were created by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab for the Trading Post. These sprays are generously scented with copious amounts of Black Phoenix perfume oil and disperse beautifully. A little goes a long way.

 

Labels printed on an Earth-friendly corn biopolymer.

 

The Black Phoenix Partnership does not test on animals. We test on friends and family, and on the linens of friends and family!

 

FAE FOREST

Mist-shrouded woods: Siberian fir needles, white pine bark, aspen leaf, wild lily, bergamot, wood violet, thimbleberry, sun-star, golden bell, snowdrop, heartsease, and bloodroot.

 

UNSPEAKABLY EVIL TEMPLE

A profane blend of opoponax, galangal root, dried mosses, wormwood accord, sandarac, frankincense, myrrh, and black copal.

 

EXOTIC BAZAAR

Nepalese amber, white sandalwood, black peppercorn, ambrette seed, neroli, coconut sugar, cardamom pods, ginger, fennel, bitter almond, liquorice root, henna, copaiba balsam, and spikenard.

 

 

 

And for a limited time...

 

The cicadas have hatched, and they're swarming the Lab --

 

BROOD XIX

Under the heat of the summer sun, a Cicada was hopping about in a large field, chirping and singing lazily. An Ant passed him by, busily heaving along, with tremendous effort, bits of corn he was taking to the nest.

 

"Why not come and chat with me," asked the Cicada, "instead of toiling like that? The day is too lovely to spend in such a manner."

 

"I am helping my fellow ants lay up food for the winter," squealed the Ant indignantly, "and I recommend that you do the same."

 

"Why bother about winter?" said the Cicada; "we have got plenty of food at present. Climb this tree with me and enjoy the sun-warmed bark and the gentle swaying leaves."

 

Turning away, the Ant went on its way and continued its work dutifully. The Cicada pitied the Ant, calling it foolish for wasting time working on such a lovely day, and went back to singing his summer songs of joy.

 

When the winter came, the Cicada had no food and no shelter. The Cicada found itself dying of hunger, while the resourceful and hardworking ants were snug in their warm holes, full of corn and grain from their stores.

 

Then the Cicada knew: It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.

 

The Cicada, in myth, represents indifference and idleness, brevity and impermanence, and dissolution through pleasure:

 

The story is that once upon a time these creatures were men-men of an age before there were any Muses; and that when the latter came into the world and music made its appearance, some of the people of those days were so thrilled with pleasure that they went on singing, and quite forgot to eat and drink until they actually died without noticing it. From them in due course sprang the race of cicadas.

 

(John Sallis on Plato's Plaedrus)

 

The cicadas also represent immortality and rebirth because of their emergent resurrection from the womb of the earth, and they embody transformation and self-preservation through guile because of the way they shed their golden skins.

 

The Great Southern Brood of cicadas is now hatching.

 

Tree sap, hay, almond blossoms, moss, hemp, corn stalks, acorn, sweet amber, and rice milk.

 

 

 

 

Fair Child of Sun and Summer! we behold

With eager eyes thy wings bedropp'd with gold;

The purple spots that o'er thy mantle spread,

The sapphire's lively blue, the ruby's red,

Ten thousand various blended tints surprise,

Beyond the rainbow's hues or peacock's eyes:

Not Judah's king in eastern pomp array'd,

Whose charms allur'd from far the Sheban maid,

High on his glitt'ring throne, like you could shine

(Nature's completest miniature divine):

For thee the rose her balmy buds renews,

And silver lilies fill their cups with dews;

Flora for thee the laughing fields perfumes,

For thee Pomona sheds her choicest blooms,

Soft Zephyr wafts thee on his gentlest gales

O'er Hackwood's sunny hill and verdant vales;

For thee, gay queen of insects! do we rove

From walk to walk, from beauteous grove to grove;

And let the critics know, whose pedant pride

And awkward jests our sprightly sport deride:

That all who honours, fame, or wealth pursue,

Change but the name of things--they hunt for you.

-- "Verses on a Butterfly", Joseph Wharton

 

 

 

 

This month, we revisit the Metamorphosis:

 

METAMORPHOSIS

Lo, the bright train their radiant wings unfold!

With silver fringed, and freckled o'er with gold:

 

On the gay bosom of some fragrant flower

They, idly fluttering, live their little hour;

Their life all pleasure, and their task all play,

All spring their age, and sunshine all their day.

- " To Mrs. P--------., With Some Drawings...", Anna Laetitia Aikin

 

The grace, beauty, and complexity of butterflies and moths have permeated myths all over the globe. The symmetry and elegance of their form and the coquettish rhythm of their dance inspires visions of fleeting romance:

 

The dawn is smiling on the dew that covers

The tearful roses; lo, the little lovers

That kiss the buds, and all the flutterings

In jasmine bloom, and privet, of white wings,

That go and come, and fly, and peep and hide,

With muffled music, murmured far and wide.

Ah, the Spring time, when we think of all the lays

That dreamy lovers send to dreamy mays,

Of the fond hearts within a billet bound,

Of all the soft silk paper that pens wound,

The messages of love that mortals write

Filled with intoxication of delight,

Written in April and before the May time

Shredded and flown, playthings for the wind's playtime,

We dream that all white butterflies above,

Who seek through clouds or waters souls to love,

And leave their lady mistress in despair,

To flit to flowers, as kinder and more fair,

Are but torn love-letters, that through the skies

Flutter, and float, and change to butterflies

- " The Genesis of Butterflies", Victor Hugo

 

Though in some myths - notably, China's Butterfly Lovers, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, and Japan's tale of Takahama and Akiko - butterflies are symbols of eternal love and devotion.

 

Most often, butterflies and moths represent change, transition, and metamorphosis. Butterflies are also seen as personifications of the soul, and symbols of mankind's desire for spiritual evolution. They are harbingers of both love and death, and some believe that errant souls manifest in this form.

 

Moths and butterflies are, to some, symbols of blind desire and madness, perilously drawn to the splendor of light and flame. This mad desire is also portrayed, at times, as transcendence:

 

Tell it none except the wise,

for the common crowd defames:

of the living I shall praise

that which longs for death in flames.

 

In the love night which created

you where you create, a yearning

wakes: you see, intoxicated,

far away a candle burning.

Darkness now no longer snares you,

shadows lose their ancient force,

as a new desire tears you

up to higher intercourse.

 

Now no distance checks your flight,

charmed you come and you draw night

till, with longing for the light,

you are burnt, O butterfly.

 

And until you have possessed

dying and rebirth,

you are but a sullen guest

on the gloomy earth.

- " Blissful Yearning", Goethe, translation by Walter Kaufmann

 

This series, though seemingly simple, is a complex narrative in scent. It was created with the intention of illustrating the beauty of transformation and transcendence, the sweetness of romance, the joy of freedom and personal liberty, and the perpetuity of true love.

 

Wake, butterfly -

It's late, we've miles

To go together.

- Matsuo Basho

 

 

 

+ THE MOTHS

ATLAS

Mallow, oak bark, coffee bean, hinoki wood, and khus.

 

BRAHMIN

Rose otto, red ginger, caraway seed, myrrh, orange peel, mandarin leaf, black peppercorn, and vanilla orchid.

 

IO

Red musk, pomegranate, cranberry, blackberry, mango, purple sage, thyme, and angelica root.

 

PUSSY

Orange blossom honey, brown sugar, saffron, tonka absolute, and tobacco leaf.

 

 

 

+ THE BUTTERFLIES

BLUE MORPHO

Wild orchid, pikake, honeysuckle, calla lily, agave nectar, pink geranium, violet leaf, and white amber.

 

GOLIATH BIRDWING

White sage, lemongrass, lemon balm, dusty beige musk, and drops of anise.

 

MOURNING CLOAK

Opoponax, kumaru, cocoa butter, Mysore sandalwood, verbena, almond milk, guiac wood, beeswax, and myrrh.

 

PURPLE SPOTTED SWALLOWTAIL

Black plum, opium poppy, dusky amber, opoponax, castoreum accord, dried berries, tolu balsam, clove bud, and lime.

 

 

 

Butterfly, moth, and cicada illustrations by Alicia Dabney!

 

 

The Metamorphosis series is dedicated, as always, to my daughter. Lilith, you're growing so quickly. Every day you blossom more and more. I love you, little butterfly. You are the joy of my life, and I'm so grateful to be your mother.

 

 

 

 

And in other news:

 

A new Dark Delicacies / Black Phoenix scent is live on the Dark Delicacies web site! It is also available at their brick and mortar shop in Burbank, CA!

 

TATTERED LACE

An allegory of Victorian melancholy and madness: tea-stained bourbon vanilla, with white cognac, coconut bark, Oman frankincense, and woodmoss over opium tar-stained silk.

 

Tattered Lace is available exclusively through Dark Delicacies.

 

Dark Delicacies

3512 W. Magnolia Blvd.

Burbank, CA 91505

888-DARKDEL

http://www.darkdel.com

 

 

 

Please extend glops of love and a warm welcome to the newest member of the BPAL family: Pretty Indulgent in Quebec, Canada! Aw yeah - BPAL is international now.

 

Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and Pretty Indulgent present a celebration of the rich culture and history of Quebec.

 

For your consideration:

 

+ QUEBEC: SERIES I

HOCHELAGA

Warm musk with soft leather, a dusting of dry wildflowers and herbs, sweetgrass, sage, shagbark hickory, and Canadian balsam.

 

Un musc chaud avec une note de cuir souple, saupoudré de fleurs sauvages et d'herbes, de foin d'odeur, de sauge, de caryer ovale, et de baume du Canada.

 

 

 

UNE FOLLE ENTREPRISE

A mélange of silvery musk, iris, licorice root, black currant, apple blossom, patchouli root, violet, heliotrope, anise, and tonka bean.

 

Un mélange: musc argenté, iris, racine de réglisse, cassis, fleur de pommier, racine de patchouli, violette, héliotrope, anis, et fève tonka.

 

 

 

VILLE-MARIE

An elegant blend of native and imported flowers twirled around a sophisticated vanilla-touched white musk: Madonna lily, crabapple blossom, Begonia juliana, dendrobium and phalaenopsis orchids, and five varieties of lilac.

 

Un musc blanc sophistiqué, touché de vanille et marié à des fleurs indigènes et étrangères: lys, fleur de pommier, Bégonia, orchidées dendrobium et phalaenopsis , et cinq variétés de lilas.

 

 

 

These scents were created by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab for Pretty Indulgent, and are sold only through the Pretty Indulgent web site.

 

 

 

Stuff is being posted all the friggin' time on BPAL's etsy shop, Trading Post's etsy shop, and the Black Phoenix ebay thingydooder.

 

And for the moment... that's that!