The Quicksilver Sphynx
Miscellanea, February 1994
Nick 'Winter
The first-of-the-month Sabbats are really awful to write about, since while I'm writing this it's before Brigid, but by the time you read it Brigid will have been and gone. Therefore, I'll just say I hope we all have heaps of fun, and leave it there.
Welcome home and congratulations, Coven Kharis! And, Anton tells me, he's finally completed what sounds like an exhausting series of hoops to go through to get everything sorted out properly, medically and legally. In every possible sense, 'Nina' is entirely history. You've all been missed, through all that time away, and it's wonderful to have you not only home to stay but happy. Finding who you are and being that is hard enough without the extra complications! Congratulations from Coven Winter and lots of other people!
Donovan 'Sky-Drum will be opening a new shop on the 25th, selling hand-made clothes and similar by him and a few others in Haven. Partly conventional, partly magesilk. I didn't even know that it was possible to incorporate things like buttons and zippers into magesilk, although a wolf changing while wearing it will destroy that, and I never thought of sewing magesilk to create more complex effects. I can't wait to see what creative minds have invented for us! It's in the old lapidary shop near Venus Alive. Watch for Arachne's Loom.
My recommendation for the rest of the paper: on page three, there's a very interesting and rather funny article on the cultural mess in mixed villages: the blending of given names and surnames (surnames? who uses those, anyway? coven names are usually more useful!) from opposite sides of the globe, and some of the things we've adopted from those varying cultures, past and present.
Exotica is at it again—do they never stop? When do they find time to do anything else? They're already well on the way to creating a new work of art. My Exotica source Cari 'Dragonfire won't leak any secrets, but she says this one plays more with Egyptian mythology rather than the Celtic and Classical they usually do.
The Brewery, White Stag, Solomon's Seal, Venus Alive, the library, and The Everything Else Shop are all going to be involved in a major art display. Paintings, sculpture, and related sorts of things will be at the places I just named for a week, starting on the 20th. Some will be for sale, some won't, each piece will say. These are all Haven artists, so be supportive!
Deanna 'Sundark tells me she's helping out as part of a group of roughly half a dozen who want to try to put together a computer database of useful subjects, and they're looking for all the input possible. They're starting off with gems, crystals, and stones, and the various powers of each. Since they want this to be as complete as possible, they'll include all the information anyone can give them. Preferably written, and send it to Sundark, or to Covens Moonstone, Merrymoon, Dragonfire, Tabbycat, or Harpsong, or to Grant Londry.
Lindsay has some new toys in at Venus Alive, among them new scents in massage oils, and leather in various forms.
On to historical notes. February's been a pretty slow month in Haven history. Ananda Fedorov completed quite a useful book on worldwide magical correspondences in 1986, I can't think of anyone into ritual magic who doesn't have a copy. I've been told people are tired of hearing about Coven Starluck, so I can't tell you their mage Brydie Isadore died at the age of 87 of pneumonia.
Maybe March will have more interesting history.