Transcript
Speaker: Hello everyone. um Happy spooky season. It is October and holy crap would it be silly of us to not check in with our beautiful audience and give you a little a little sprinkling of spooky season. i hope you're all going well. ah I know I'm excited for ghouls and Halloween and all that kind of stuff. I don't know if you guys celebrate, you know, Halloween and all of that, but um if you don't, you should be.
Speaker: um So I'm going to share with you some Halloween stuff today. It's just going to be an episode. It's going to be a bit of a spooky episode. We're going to meander. We're going to talk about the origins of Halloween. We're going to talk about...
Speaker: maybe I'll like find a ghost story I haven't shared with you you guys yet like maybe it'll be like the scariest stuff I've ever experienced that I've been too scared to share with anyone so it might be first you know you heard it first kind of stuff which is kind of cool um and yeah it'll be it'll be a fun time um if you haven't thought to do so already, I highly recommend you all get around a spooky season beverage of choice.
Speaker: um You know, like make like a spiced mulled wine, you know, you get some like, you know, spicy pumpkin stuff, get involved with like...
Speaker: some cocktails maybe. It's just fun to like get around the festive season, um especially before Christmas and New Year's and all that stuff kind of creeps in. I feel like October is like a really spacious month to just kind of go I'm going to get really ghouly and spooky. I'm kind going to rest and think about ghosts and –
Speaker: Maybe it's just me. Maybe it's just me. I love Halloween. It's reflective. um i love October. It's like quite a um an interesting month and maybe it's just me. I'm someone that's like really at different times in my life thought about, you know, the hustle and bustle of like the festive season and so maybe October is like a bit of reprieve for me to just have a bit of a rest stop before things get a bit...
Speaker: get a bit um social and Christmassy. So yeah, anyway, all that aside, get around a festive beverage. And today, before I get into all my spooky stuff, I'm actually going make myself a pumpkin spiced iced latte.
Speaker: Because in Australia, the weather's warming up, I need ice in my coffee and I've never ever in my life tried a pumpkin spiced ice latte. So yeah, that's some that's how I've decided to start the podcast.
Speaker: um I'll share with you a recipe and I'll let you know how it tastes. And then I'll have my beverage ready and we can like get into Halloween. What is Halloween? I've never actually sat down and looked into the origins of all this stuff.
Speaker: So hopefully I can find some fun, interesting facts about Halloween. And I'm going to get my thinking cap on and really think about A scary, ah scary ghost story that's happened to me in my time.
Speaker: But yeah.
Speaker: Pumpkin spice ice latte. Hopefully I'll enjoy it. Let's see.
Speaker: Okay, so before I start getting into some stories, I am going to share this like pumpkin spice iced latte. What a mouthful. I'm going to share that with you. So it's pretty simple. um Hopefully you have some of these ingredients in your pantry already, but essentially all we're doing is mixing spices and getting some pumpkin puree and mixing it all together and adding some espresso shots in it. So I have one teaspoon of ground cloves.
Speaker: I have one teaspoon of ground nutmeg. One teaspoon of ground ginger. And one teaspoon of natural vanilla extract, which is quite lovely.
Speaker: So we're going to mix all of that together. That's what I'm currently doing. Mixing all that together. And I'm now also going to add two tablespoons of pumpkin puree so for the Australians listening I've just gone the classic Campbell's soup country ladle um because that's what is going on the shelves at the moment and it's affordable so two tablespoons of pumpkin puree going in
Speaker: Now look, I'm a bit of a pumpkin connoisseur and I have opted for butternut pumpkin because it's sweeter than your usual, like then like it's sweeter than normal pumpkin. So I'm going a bit fancy here and adding butternut pumpkin.
Speaker: You know, there's creativity in making Halloween drinks because, you know, each to their own and that. So yeah, I've added two tablespoons of the butternut pumpkin to my spice mix.
Speaker: And I have absolutely forgotten to add cinnamon. What the hell? So I'm just going to go grab the cinnamon and we're going to grab a teaspoon of cinnamon.
Speaker: Okay, so we're back on track. So I'll repeat it. We have one teaspoon of ground cloves, one teaspoon of ground nutmeg, one teaspoon of ground ginger and one teaspoon of cinnamon.
Speaker: How could we forget the cinnamon? We have two tablespoons of butternut pumpkin puree or normal pumpkin. Alright, that's like for you to experiment with.
Speaker: And a teaspoon of vanilla extract. And we're just mixing it in my glass.
Speaker: It's looking kind of fun. um Okay, so now what we're going to do is add, look, the recipe asks for two tablespoons of maple syrup.
Speaker: That is not something I'm going to do. I'm going half of that and I'm going to add, i'm going to add it to taste. I'm going to see how like two teaspoons tastes.
Speaker: All right. Cause I don't want it to be too sugary. And then if I am drinking my ice latte and I need it to be a bit sweeter, I'll just add more.
Speaker: So yeah, maple syrup. They also say you can use brown sugar. and just mix it with a bit of hot water.
Speaker: So that's the base of our ice latte, pumpkin spice ice latte, and it smells delicious. It smells really delicious. I'm excited.
Speaker: And then this is the fun part. So it's an ice latte. I'm going to add two shots of espresso in the recipe. They say, if you don't have your own sort of espresso machine or coffee machine at home, you can just get some um strong cold brew,
Speaker: or um any kind of iced coffee blend to add to it to to get that iced latte taste. So yeah, I'm going to add two shots of espresso. And I suppose if you don't like coffee, you wouldn't add any coffee to this and you could just have the spice pumpkin vibe with whatever milk you choose.
Speaker: So going add two shots of coffee. is brilliant and um then i just need to top it up with milk of my choice so i'm gonna add full cream milk to mine and lots of ice and and i'm excited to try it
Speaker: oh wow that is that is a spiced ice latte if i've ever tasted once so it is It reminds me of an iced chai. um And then i think the pumpkin just adds like a savory note to it, which is quite and like a creaminess to it.
Speaker: um It's actually delicious. It's very moorish. I want to keep sipping on it. If I could give any advice, you know how I was before talking about like, I'm just going to add like a teaspoon of maple syrup.
Speaker: two two tablespoons so do do all of the sugar add two tablespoons because it balances out the spices and i would say go light on the cloves so ask for a teaspoon of ground cloves i do like a quarter a teaspoon just to balance that out but other than that i'm actually loving it so there you and the coffee it doesn't have a strong coffee taste but It feels really like warm and fuzzy because of all the cinnamon and the nutmeg and all that kind of stuff. It's like tasting...
Speaker: it's like tasting kind of like a gingerbread house so yeah but like more halloweeny because we added pumpkin which is kind of beautiful um there you so that is my spooky season drink of choice spiced pumpkin ice latte and then you know if you have whipped cream they say add the whipped cream i do not have access to like whipped cream but I do have a garnish I have a cinnamon quill that I'm going to add to it and I'm just going to sip on this and um let's go let's get into some spooky Halloween stuff
Speaker: Alright, so let us begin with the origins of Halloween. So, have never looked into this before and I'm asking myself why.
Speaker: You know, we are in the age of the internet and it's really fascinating. So, the origin of Halloween, if you have never looked into it, it originated about 2,000 years ago from the ancient Celtic festival of Sohoun.
Speaker: And this festival marked the end of the harvest and the start of the Celtic New Year on November 1st. So during this time, on October 31st, the Celtic people believed that the veil became thin.
Speaker: and they believed that on this night spirits and ghosts could come down and walk the earth. And because of this they took on these traditions to distract the spirits um and to ward off evil spirits and that kind of thing. So you I'm reading that they would wear animal skins and masks to disguise themselves from any of the spirits and ghosts and that kind of thing that were walking the earth.
Speaker: And then I've also read that the tradition of pumpkin carving started from this festival. And they originally used a termate turnips. So they would use turnips.
Speaker: They would carve faces into the turnips and put them outside to deter spirits from interfering with their lives. And they would light bonfires and that kind of thing.
Speaker: So that's really cool. That is kind of the origin of Halloween. And then um i was doing some other reading on the significance of black and orange, and it was relating to orange being, you know, entering into autumn, I believe, and the ending of winter. There's something about the symbolism of that as well. And over the years, of course, you know, different cultures, we've all taken, taken these traditions and turned it into candy.
Speaker: So Halloween in this day and age is all about eating candy. And it is just blowing my mind which how we've managed to do this. so Halloween Kind of started quite creepy, didn't it? So, you know, these people are celebrating the the start of the Celtic New Year, but they're also like, the spirits, the veil is thin, we must distract them, and it's scary, so let's light some fires. And yeah, it's interesting. But um yeah, I'm sure there's lots to read up on it. um
Speaker: Go for it. That's just my little summary from what I've read recently. So I'm going to talk to you about a really scary thing that happened to me when I was about nine years old, seven, eight, nine, around that age.
Speaker: um And it's something I've never really shared with every with anyone actually, because it scared me so much as a kid. And when I think about it now, I'm just like, that was like...
Speaker: The moment I think as a kid, i just was like, what the hell is going on? You know, like, oh, I probably didn't even have that, that thinking process going on.
Speaker: But the reason it was so scary is because it didn't happen... It happened not long after my very first ghost encounter. So i mentioned in season one, there's an episode where I talk about seeing lady at the end of my bed.
Speaker: And it went on for what felt like a full 20 minutes or like maybe it felt like an hour or two hours in my head.
Speaker: um And this lady just wouldn't stop walking in and out of my room and looking at me and she would roll her eyes, stare at me and I could see her. It's like she like this felt like an intelligent haunting where she was just staring at me. i was staring at her. She'd roll her eyes and then she'd walk out and I could tell energetically that she was just waiting in my bathroom.
Speaker: And it was hands down, it was so scary. um That's probably when I had my first panic attack as a kid and I didn't even realize it. And I just remember hiding. i just remember hiding under My bed covers all night.
Speaker: And yeah, it's a great story. So if you need to listen to it, um that's in season one. And yeah, it still freaks me out to this day, but I have i have a bit more understanding because it actually ended up being a great, great grandma of mine. So there's some comfort in that, but I'm also, also not at the same time. Um, so yeah, it was this, this story that I'm about to tell you, it probably happened about a month or two after that initial haunting, you know? So um you know, i I, got over that. Mum and dad were lovely. They,
Speaker: told me it was probably a guardian angel and I was like, yep, sure. You know, cool. But we rearranged our room so I wouldn't have to. so you know, you can imagine it's like, cool, I'm not sleeping in that. I'm not sleeping ne next to the door anymore. So we rearranged our room.
Speaker: um because me and my sister shared a room at this time. So we rearranged our room so my bed didn't have to face the door. And I'm thinking this will solve all my problems. And then you know, two months after this happened,
Speaker: I'm lying in my bed one night and everything's normal and I'm lying on my side and i remember not ever wanting to open my eyes at night because I was scared i was going to see a ghost. you know Very rational fear, by the way. It wasn't irrational at all. I just was like, if I don't open my eyes at night, I won't see a ghost and we're fine. So this night I'm doing that thing. I'm not opening my eyes and I get this feeling that someone's looking at me um watching me or maybe I actually just need to open my eyes. I don't really remember exactly what made me open my eyes.
Speaker: But um I did. so I'm on my side and open my eyes and this little boy, so he was probably like a toddler, I want to say. um And he was like glowing in like blue. It was almost like um a glow stick kind of blue um glowing around him.
Speaker: So quite scary, quite different to the great grape
Speaker: grandma sort of visual and he had a teddy bear under his arm and um and he just looked very sad and the face was kind of distorted so um you know if you want to talk about creepy ghost story this is sort of top tier of what ah what I've experienced So I, yeah, I'm opening my eyes and this is what I see. I see this little boy. He's about a toddler. He's kind of, he wasn't hovering. He was genuinely just standing right there, like as close to my bed as you can imagine.
Speaker: And he's got this teddy bear under his arm and he was almost like His hand was to his mouth or he was sort of sucking his thumb or something. And he was just staring at me. ah And I like freak out thinking about it now. And, um,
Speaker: Yeah, it scared the crap out of me. And I remember just looking and then um closing my eyes straight away, rolling over and again, just getting like putting my head under my pillow and like my blanket over the top of me and just being like, and I'm done. Like, what the hell? And I didn't tell anyone about this. So I think I was just like, this is, ah don't know, poor little me. Anyway, so really scary. So just that visual of there is a little boy in my room, you know, just staring at me. It was like he was wanting to play. Like I look back at these situations retrospectively every now and then.
Speaker: And it's weird because they don't go away. They kind of stay with you. And i have wondered, you know, is do these things happen when I'm like in a waking, sleeping state, you know?
Speaker: um But it's always in the middle of the night and I've always just felt the need to either wake up cause i need a glass of water. You know, it's just, it's always like that typical 3
Speaker: you know, have you ever heard that whole like, you know, ghost come out at like 3am is like witching hour? And like both of these experiences in my old bedroom, they both happened around 3am.
Speaker: So yeah, it was very, very scary. ay from that point on, I literally would have to sleep with either a pillow or like a really large teddy bear between, like I would wedge myself between a wall and a large stuffed animal and it didn't matter how hot it was. i was like, I don't care if like it's 40 degrees tonight. Like I'm not getting out from under my covers. Yeah. Just very, very, very, very scary.
Speaker: And I've never told that story out loud except to anyone but my sister, because we talk about ghost stories and stuff for the podcast. But, um, I've never seen anything like that since. Um, I've never been scared by anything like that.
Speaker: since and it's probably because that was my first time seeing like a pretty scary ghost or second time and I really wasn't expecting it the second time so that is probably the spookiest thing from my past ghostly experiences after that I didn't see much if anything um Which is good.
Speaker: And I wonder, i we always wonder how that works. um Yeah, so yeah the boy, little boy just standing right next to my bed, just I wonder if he wanted to play, he just sort of wandered in and was like, oh, this person will play with me. We're around the same age, but he he seemed significantly younger.
Speaker: um And he wasn't floating, so he was like, you know, again, like, I wonder if it was an intelligent haunting. Yeah. And yeah, it was quite scary. ah So yeah, that is, that's my Halloween story that I wanted to share with you all.
Speaker: um I have plenty more little stories, but you know, there's plenty of time to share those intermittently as the season continues.
Speaker: um I wanted to, for fun, for a bit of like Halloween fun, I wanted to go into pulling some oracle cards for our collective Twindristed audience.
Speaker: And it'll just be for the month of October or what's left of October for the final two weeks of October. Just um a message for our audience. take you know Take it as a grain of salt. You don't have to take any of it on. But yeah, if any of what the cards say resonate with you, then yeah, something to ponder for the next two weeks. So yeah, let's do that.
Speaker: All right, I have pulled two oracle cards for our Twinterested listeners, and they're quite beautiful messages. And i would say very timely to have these beautiful messages come through,
Speaker: um at this time. Very timely at this time. So the first card I've pulled is from the Ancient Stones Oracle deck.
Speaker: um It's a beautiful deck, I thought considering we're honouring the tradition of Halloween. um The Ancient Stones Oracle deck, it seemed kind of fun and very fitting.
Speaker: And the card I pulled is the Gateway. It talks about opening doors, new opportunities and the right timing. And I'll read a little bit from the book that it comes with. Every oracle card has ah has a different meaning.
Speaker: So this says, The gateway card usually appears with a message of positive new beginnings and right timing. Opportunities are being handed to you on a platter and you're being invited to choose a new timeline for your expansion.
Speaker: Your gateway may come through a challenge you're facing. It could be a hard earned dream at coming to fruition, or it may simply be a key to your destiny appearing on your path.
Speaker: Saying yes to the gateway is saying yes to your expansion. It's just so wonderful to receive this card in a spread for the message that there's a rare gateway opening just for you.
Speaker: And then a question that you could probably journal on for this card or even just take a walk and ponder for yourself, a bit of inner exploration. The card asks the question, what new direction are you being called to take?
Speaker: What new opportunity are you being called to embrace? So that's a beautiful card. And i think it's really... interesting because I've then pulled second oracle card from again going with sort of Halloween themes.
Speaker: It's a beautiful deck called Folklore um and it has some really beautiful illustrations. um as well. And I've pulled a card and it's the card of mourning and grief.
Speaker: And it's interesting how it dovetails into the gateway. And this card is sort of a companion card to the card I just pulled. And it's sort of asking us what must we let go of?
Speaker: And how do we hold ourselves through letting go of something in our life, which can then lead to this gateway card.
Speaker: um It sort of speaks to creating space. And I was even starting this episode by saying, you know, October can be a really beautiful rest stop before the, you know, festive season, which gets quite social and busy.
Speaker: So I feel like this morning card is asking us to take time over the next two weeks. for ourselves whenever you can just to you know feel any emotions that may have bottled up over the past few months um if you need to take time out and have a little cry for yourself that's okay um and it's even asking us to just honor anything this year that we've had to grieve
Speaker: yeah So by taking time and space to honour any grief, or any difficult emotion, we can actually free ourselves up to step into something lighter next month.
Speaker: So it's so important to take time to grieve, to take time out to even journal, reassess what's everything like, what have you moved through this year?
Speaker: What do you want to leave behind this year? You know, um and how do we do that? You know? um
Speaker: Yeah, how exciting. So yeah, don't be don't be um scared by a card that has ah has a grieving woman on it, because right alongside that is a beautiful card called the Gateway.
Speaker: So... Duality. Sometimes by letting something go, honoring the emotion, you're freed up to step into something new and expansive.
Speaker: And that is the message that is coming through for all of you beautiful listeners. Thank you so much for for listening and for showing interest in our podcast.
Speaker: And I'll leave that there. So that is our reading. We have the gateway card and we have the mourning card. Very Halloween, by the way. So it's kind of like, I feel like it's almost tapping into the energy of um the the old Halloween tradition. what you know They didn't want to bring the the energy of the spirits who were roaming the earth. you know they They almost wanted to cleanse themselves of of all that before the new harvest, before the new
Speaker: the new year. So yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker: slowly Slowly transitioning out of that oracle reading. And I thought as a way of ending this podcast episode, I'd give you my top three spooky viewing recommendations.
Speaker: So if any of you are into watching a bit of spooky stuff around Halloween, I'm just going to give you three movies that I'd personally recommend.
Speaker: um you watch and I'm not going to go into them, but I will say they're, they're movies that like I found highly entertaining and like really scary.
Speaker: all at the same time. um So just before I say goodbye and wish you all a happy Halloween, my top three spooky viewings are, at the very top we have a classic, Paranormal Activity. If you haven't seen it, watch the very first Paranormal Activity. That was, i saw it at the cinemas and ah don't I don't usually go to the cinema to watch like scary movies, but I've seen a few in my time and Paranormal Activity was great. It was just some classic haunting, it wasn't over the top, and it was very fun, very scary.
Speaker: Watch it with the lights off and Have a good time. So Paranormal Activity, that's my number one recommendation. Number two is a recent one, Weapons. If you haven't seen it, please see it.
Speaker: It is just good. It is just good, wholesome, terrifying fun. Have fun watching Weapons. um And number three, any of the Freddy Krueger movies. That's just like throwing in some old classics and I watched all of the Freddy Krueger movies a few years ago, and there's just something very eerie about them.
Speaker: I also just love the, like, the artistry of, like, puppetry and the masks and the, like, creepy character of Freddy. um and I just would recommend, if you're looking for, like...
Speaker: a bit more of like a older not really thrasher just like creepy weird b-grade horror movie like just watch any of the freddy krueger movies so i'll leave it there i hope you enjoyed um this haunted halloween episode and yeah get around some pumpkin spiced ice lattes Add all of the maple syrup, go really light on the cloves and remember to add some boiling hot water to get all the bases light so it's not too grainy. So yeah enjoy your Halloween everyone and i will see you again soon.
