Spoopy

 As spooky season is around the corner, and being one of those people who's life is always a little bit spooky season, I wanted to talk a little bit about the spoopy (no, that's not a typo...not now at least) phenomenon.  If you aren't aware of it, spoopy is a term for something that would be traditionally spooky (or scary, or unsettling), but is instead comical or cute.  It's taking the frightening and making it adorable or humorous...taking the edge off of it.

The story goes that the origins of the word were in a misspelling of spooky, on a sign being sold in a store.  From there, as with any internet meme, it took off, and now we see things deliberately marketed as being spoopy.  

Now, as someone who identifies as a witch, a typically spooky icon, the cutification of the scary has some interesting ramifications.  Firstly, I feel like this makes so many typically scary things much more accessible, especially to kids.  You can have cute versions of all the typical Halloween stuff:  ghosts, skeletons, zombies....and witches.  Instead of being something to be afraid of, it makes them into adorable or hilarious images that many people really like.

Personally, I love me some fright and gore, so I wasn't someone who was put off by the more macabre side of things, but I do know that a lot of people don't care for the really spooky stuff.  And I definitely thing that many of the hard-core horror representations of witches and magic definitely paint us in a negative light.  If you watch movies, you might expect witches to always be horrible, frightening and mean.  But with this new spoopy perspective, we can have adorable and cute versions, and normally those versions make the characters into helpful and friendly ones.

I feel like this will have a HUGE impact on the negative portrayal of many aspects of our practice.  If the only representation that most people see of witches is in horror movies, of course they will think the worst.  They don't have any other versions to go by.  However, if we see more spoopy translations of things, then people won't have this automatic negative attitude towards things that are more traditionally spooky...including witches.

On a more practical note, as much as I love proper scary stuff and gore, I also love me some cute, so spoopy products are right up my alley as well.  And, when it comes to Halloween and kids, I love that there are even more options that are child friendly (if you don't also have a child who loves the dark and spooky).  It lets people go all out for the holiday without needing to be scary and possibly terrifying the littles who may see your decorations.

I also think this is a sign of us, as a global society, accepting that adults can love cute things (that were once relegated to children).  I love that more and more people are embracing the idea that nothing is 'too childish' for an adult to enjoy.  If you love cute stuff, why not go spoopy for the holidays!  Let your inner child play, and get those cute and funny things that bring your spirit joy.

From a magical perspective, I love anything that gives us options, and spoopy items can let us approach things from a different perspective.  Let's think about the typical Jack-o-lantern.  It was created to scare off spirits, to frighten them away.  If we want to do protection magic with our Jack-o-lantern, it's perfectly suited.  But maybe, we want to invite children to come to our house and trick-or-treat.  In that case, a spoopy Jack-o-lantern might be a better fit.  We can find one that isn't scary at all, but maybe instills giggles in children, and enchant that to make them feel welcome coming up and ringing our doorbell.

Even around the house, a spoopy black cat might be all big eyes and make you feel warm and cuddly inside.  A spoopy ghost might fit with a welcoming house spirit.  A spoopy spider might be a good guardian (takes care of bugs but doesn't freak you out).  There are lots of ways in which spoopy versions of more traditionally spooky items can be used to twist their correspondences, so if you want to lean more towards the positive you can still celebrate the seasons, but with a spoopy twist!