Habitude - witches world

There is nothing as remarkable as the unfettered imagination of a child who is much loved, and so is confident that she will be listened to. It is too easy to sit back spellbound at each outpouring. One wishes for a tape recorder, but the fuss of setting one up would break the spell, and slowing the child down enough to have her write instead of speak is obviously going to be a severe hindrance. I have been tempted to have a try at capturing my eight-year-old granddaughter, Thalia’s ‘Witches World’, because she ‘knows’ this world, and returns to it confidently again and again. What follows is our email exchanges so far (see latest), and I am hoping to keep this going and then help her use this material to describe this world in her own words.

I sent a text to Mummy asking her to help you to send me an email so that we can make a start on writing up Witches World. She said she would do that on Monday but she is always very busy, and I think you are tired and floppy after school. Anyway, let’s see what I can remember from when you were talking about Witches World – let’s call it ‘WW’ for short – on the way from Bath to Aunty Fizz’s – when I got lost, do you remember? The trouble is, I was so much enjoying just listening to you talk about it that I wasn’t trying to remember the details. But if I’ve got something wrong or can’t remember, you can tell me, which is the whole idea of this!

WW is not like a planet, and not like a star surrounded by planets. There is a kind of empty mass in the centre of it all, but it doesn’t shine, so you cannot see WW from Earth – unless you’re a witch!

The material that WW planets are made of is very mysterious – you told me the name of it but I can’t remember that.

There are many creatures living in WW, witches and dragons, obviously, but many others too

Witches and dragons are the only ones who can move around and between the planets.

When I asked you how they travel the vast distances between planets – and from Earth to WW and back – your explanation reminded me of ‘wormholes’ in outer space that scientists talk of.

The atmosphere of WW planets had something special about it, but I can’t remember what.

I asked you what witches eat and the answer was some stuff you gave me the name of which grows on one of the planets – or was it on all of them?

That’s the best I can do for now. I know there was lots more – so tell me, please!

I got your E Mail. Yes there are many planets in WW and yes they are not at all like Earth. They are more like big pieces of rock and some of them have got the food the witches eat called “Memphiphagoes”. They’re extremely hard to find and if you can find them you have to climb a long way to get them from the blue rocks that they grow on. The rocks are made out of a special liquid which freezes and turns into solid rock, hard as concrete but when heated it turns into a liquid as flexible as water. The liquid these are made out of is called “Lephiphigos”.

There is a way in which creatures other than witches and dragons can fly and that is by a machine called a flying Frisbee. It is powered by a special gas called agasakonias. The special thing about the air around WW is that it’s got a special ingredient in the gas which makes the gas helpful so that the people that travel from it can breathe.

I think I can think of another thing that witches do with their free time in WW and I also know a way to write it down which is very easy. Witches write something like a calendar saying what happens every day in WW.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Thank you for the new information. I had half remembered one thing that you told me on our Bath trip, which was the special gas, but I didn’t remember it was called ‘agasakonias’.

I don’t quite understand how the special ingredient in that gas helps the witches travel. Does the gas swirl around the witches’ heads as they leave Witches World? That sounds like what is called an ‘aura’, which magic and holy people are thought to have, and looks like a faint glow around their heads. How is it that the special ingredient doesn’t get used up as the witches breathe?

Your special ingredient is, of course, rather like oxygen which we breathe on Earth, and oxygen does get used up as we breathe, and plants replenish it in the process called photosynthesis, where they use the energy from the sun and water and a gas called carbon dioxide (CO2) to make food energy, and that process gives off oxygen. And so it goes, round and round. I wonder if witches take some memphiphagoes – which are a kind of plant, aren’t they? – with them, and they replenish the agasakonias. But maybe I’m making things too ordinary, too ‘earthy’, and there’s more magic involved.

By the way, I’m still wondering why you didn’t get my previous messages to your own email address, so I’m sending a copy to that too. Perhaps you don’t have that any longer, and using Mummy’s address is fine.

29 May 2007, by phone
The special WW gas, agasakonias, does have an ingredient like oxygen, but it has other properties too. It can also be a signal to the witch. If it stays close to her face it means all is well. If it swirls tight around her tummy, it means there is something dangerous nearby.

6 June 2007, orally
The planets of WW are not regular or spherical, they are jagged lumps of blue rock, with wormholes between, as in the first picture. Witches travel along the wormholes in family cars, as in the second picture. There is no gravity in the wormholes so the furniture is tied to the sides with ropes. Witches can float around inside and outside the cars because the special gas they breathe gathers around their faces so they do not need helmets or space suits. Although the plants which make the gas are green, and grow on the blue rocks, you cannot see the plants or green colour because the plants are very tiny and you have to be up close to see them. [back to correction]

Witches World has been on hold for a while, presumably because Thalia has been too busy with school. But maybe her story will resume soon since school has finished for the summer, and clearly her imagination is still working as you can see from this:

My Myth

I finished school yesterday. I think you and Dave will like this myth that I wrote.

Once long ago on a sandy beach on the beautiful island of Crete a beast called Hydra was running along the sandy shore. He was looking for some broken old shipwreck to steal the cargo and their crew. As he was running along the hot sand, he spotted a broken old ship. Slowly he moved towards it. Checking no one was around; he climbed onto the old ship. Suddenly the rope that was attaching it to the shore snapped. The boat lurched and began to sail away over the rough sea. The boat sailed on and on. As if by magic a whirlpool appeared in front of them. The boat started to speed up. Suddenly it crashed down to the bottom of the sea. As it lay there on the sea bed, Hydra had managed to survive. He climbed out of the tangled mess of the ship. Then out of the corner of his eye he spotted a beautiful chariot with pure white horses. He had landed in the middle of Poseidon’s palace. Music was flowing from the windows and ripe fruit was growing in the gardens. “I think I’ll take that chariot. It will be rather useful and those horses are so beautiful”. As Hydra was thinking this Poseidon walked round the corner to go and feed his horses. When he spotted Hydra out of the corner of his eye he cried “You have killed, stolen from and hurt people who do not deserve it, therefore you will die”. Poseidon charged, the tips of his trident flaming with fire. He plunged it into Hydra’s heart. He fell to the ocean floor dead. “Remove the beast’s body” ordered Poseidon to his guards. The guards threw the body to the snakes where it rests to this day.

I got a head teacher’s award for this and I had to read it in assembly!!! I hope you enjoy it.

I know you wanted to know about the human race’s pollution! So I’m going to tell you. Firstly as you know the human race causes lots of pollution. That pollution then floats out of the Earth’s atmosphere and out in to the solar system. Most of that pollution goes though worm holes and out into WW. Lots of the creatures have been harmed by this and others have been angered. The most upset by this is North, South, West and East. They have promised to wreak chaos unless the Human Race does something about it! Even the Rock and Stone trees are angry and they don’t complain often!

You also wanted to know a story from witch tales. I’m going to tell you a very famous story about two dragons.

Once upon a time before even the Greek Gods were created there were two dragons. One was old and loved the sun. The other was young and could not take his eyes of the moon when it was up. One night the young dragon was staring up at the moon when the old dragon came up to him and said “Brother come away from the moon for it shines too bright for you to stare without Death following in your wake.” The brother turned to leave but his young brother could not draw away from the moon. The older brother begged and begged him. Then he saw Death’s shadow was slowly moving toward his brother. “NO!!” the old dragon cried, grabbing his brother away from Death’s slimy hands. Then Death spoke to him in a voice so horrible he hardly understood it. “You dare take your brother away from what must happen. He is soon to be a lost soul.” “NO!” the other brother cried again. “Get away I’ll do anything just leave my brother alone. Is there anything I can do to stop this?” Death hesitated then said, “You or your brother must go from this world, you have till night tomorrow when one shall go.” and then he vanished into the moonlight leaving not a trace to show he had been there.

When morning came the old dragon looked up and called to the sun spirit, “What can I do?” and the sun spirit replied, “You and your bother must fly up into the sky tonight when the full moon is rising. For it is the only way you can escape Death.” So that is what the brothers did, and till this day Death still looks for the brothers but he has never stopped to think that they might be watching him from above as the first stars!

Firstly the gods all live in an enchanted garden. There are two sections of the garden and two main gods guard the secrets. There is a night time god that rules the garden at night all the creatures in WW worship him at night. The other god is the daytime god all the creatures worship him in the day. They are dragons. The night god is a girl and the day god is a boy. There chicks are 111 sunbeam dragons (all boys!) and 130 stars(all girls!). In a young creature’s first dream the gods tell them what part of the garden they will live in sometimes you can live in both sides. People say when you die in WW you will live in your side of the garden!

Witches World booklet

I have made an A5 booklet Glimpses of Witches World from Thalia’s writing, which can be downloaded here. To make up the booklet, first do a ‘Print Preview’ to check that you’ve got two A4 landscape pages, and adjust ‘Page Setup’ if necessary, then print on colour printer double-sided – preferably on 100gsm paper – taking care to get both sides of the two A4 sheets the correct way up!, fold both sheets carefully and put in correct order. To bind the booklet:

The lilac dragon I found has hatched. We thought it would be a boy it turned out it was a girl. It was a lovely dark red except for the wings which were a firery (sic) orange. Her wings were massive each wing was about the sise (sic) of my pillow! I will tell you what happens when it happens!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I must tell you about a dream I had last night – if it was a dream: you’ll know from what I tell you, I expect. A woman was there but I didn’t see her. What I did see was that she had a book about dragon lore, which looked real to me, but again you’ll know. She had a strange voice which was not audible in the normal way. It was a kind of whisper but I felt as if it came from behind my eyes. What I sensed that she said was: ‘Tell me about the Lilac Dragon.’ So I told her what you told me. She seemed agitated. Then she said: ‘Yes, that is a Lilac Dragon, but tell the Keeper (that’s you) to be careful. She says she believed it was a boy but it turned out to be a girl. That is likely to mean this dragon is a tragonite. The Keeper may be able to check from the presence or absence of fore feet, but I advise her not to try to look for them amongst the immature, feather-like scales – just wait to see if she uses them. If she has forefeet, this is a tragonite, and she will be closer in kind to the lilac tree than to lizard-kind, which means that she will produce young vegetatively, not by laying an egg but from her stomach. If she starts choking, the Keeper must feed her with warm water and honey. She probably won’t take it from a spoon, but she will lean back for the liquid to be dribbled in – rather messy, I’m afraid – once she has got the taste from your finger: dip that in the honey jar first.’ I said that you would be delighted to have this new baby. But she shook her head. ‘No, that’s not good. The honey syrup will soothe the Honey Dragon and the sore place where the clone baby could start to grow will heal over. I am sure the Keeper does not want a room full of Honey Dragons, lovely though they are.’ Well, that’s it. Then she disappeared. What do you think? Have you found the dragon’s name yet? I’m looking forward to news of her progress.

You probly saw what we witches call a loxzas which is when someone faraway contaks (contacts) you in a dream or vision. If it was a book on dragon law I would like to know how Coral Reed came to posses it. I know coral from a rather terrible dealing in the past. She is a famos (famous) “Dragon Collecter”. What I mean is she catches dragons and cuts them up for scientific reashearch (research) founded by the government. Why she would like to help with the dragon I’ll never know. Anyway another about her I think I have fond (found) a good [name] for the dragon! Torchia! She has grown I must say! Now she is about the sise (size) of a small child like Mariada (Miranda). Already she is a good climber. She seems to like hanging around at the top of the big red tree in my garden. The next step is for [her] to fly I heard they are aball (able) to fly soon after they are born.

Back to Coral. I have a feeling she would like to add little Torchia to her collection of dragon “treashures” ("treasures"). I must tell you if you have another dream about her tell her nothing that’s true about Torchia But try and find out all you can about what she’s doing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S were (We're) having a school trip and I need to dress up as an evacte (evacuee) do you [have] anything I could wear like the red dress in the cabinet?

Dear Grandma,

I have some great news about dear Torchia! She has learned to fly. I can hardly belive it. She was so exsited. She was doing loop-the-loops around the tree in our garden. She was almost spotted by the next door nabouir! Anyhow I have some information about WW. Witches un like the humans come of age when they are 3 so they get to know their familer when they get to that age. There is a huge feast in the treetops when the fimiler and witch meet for the first time. As soon as they meet the proper witch training begins. The young witch would have had some learning but not much. She would be taught by the oldest witch in the clan they live in. she will be taught by that witch for 7 years in human time( 700 years in witch time) sometimes she will be taught alone sometimes in the company of other witches.

I hope that’s anoth information for now!

Thalia

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S thanks for the information about the evactes!

Email from Thalia 17 July 2008

Dear grandma,

I do remember my witch training but not very well it was 990,000,000,009,6 you see. But I remember learning about dragons and other mythical creatures. As I remember I really good at that. But any how she’s not old enough to mate or have chicks.

Thalia

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S I really enjoyed when we went to the wood makers festival it was GREAT!!

Reply, 18 July 2008

Dear Thalia,

Thank you for your message. I am puzzled by the number 990,000,000,009,6'. Is that a date in the Witches World calendar?, or is it how many years ago it was that you were trained as a witch? Maybe if it is a number of years, the last comma should be a point, making it 990 billion (and just over a half) years ago - or 990,000 million (and just over a half) years ago in English, where a billion is a million million, unlike in America where a billion is a thousand million. I am always confused by very big numbers. But perhaps if you're a witch, time is experienced differently.

Love, Grandma

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

PS How is Puzzle? Does he annoy Mummy or has she got used to his croaking?

Trees in Witches World

Told to me at Castle Drogo by Thalia on 12 August 2008

All trees in Witches World have a special property whereby they drop branches occasionally. The wood from the dropped branches of the Ginger tree are extremely valuable. When it is ground up it makes a ginger powder, which is an essential ingredient, which is combined with various herbs to make potions. It is important when the grinding is done. If the wood is ground up at the time of a full moon, the resulting potion will be highly toxic, a deadly poison. If it is ground up in the day time, especially at midday in full sun, the potion made from it will have healing properties, and the particular herbs will determine what problem of the mind, body or spirit will be healed.

One kind of tree in Witches World is particularly special, that is the Hocus Pocus tree. Other trees have different coloured leaves at different seasons, and shed their leaves in the winter. The Hocus Pocus tree has every colour of leaves at the same time in spring, summer and autumn, and has silver leaves during the winter.

23 December 2008

Thalia and I were on duty at the Devon and Exeter Institution (DEI) Library for the last afternoon that it was open before the Christmas break. I had put Thalia through the library assistant induction so that she could search the catalogue, answer a visitor's or caller's enquiry, process the borrowing and the return of books, and put returned books back in the right places on the shelves. But we also managed a short discussion of Witches World. Thalia asked me to add the following information:

Wormhole cars - described above - are going out of business, for two reasons:

(a) it is getting very difficult for the dragons to fly safely in between the wormholes, and avoid being trapped, and

(b) it is getting hard for flying frisbies to operate because the gas that helps them work is affected by the wormhole cars, which suck the gas in.

I had asked Thalia about child witches, because I was puzzled when she told me that witches live virtually forever, which suggested to me that the point of children on Earth, which is to replenish the population and replace those who have died, would not apply in Witches World. Thalia told me that it would be difficult for me to understand because witches are a different kind of being altogether, not like humans at all, so you cannot make simple comparisons. In fact there are very few child witches, defined as witches who have not yet got their familiars, which they get at age 3, which is equivalent to 3,000 years on Earth.

I also asked Thalia about the perpetual state of war which she had told me exists in Witches World. She told me that witches in witches world have been creatures of war since the demons came. Demons are masses of evilness formed into creatures, which are perpetually attacking Witches World.

We looked at this page when we were in the DEI Library and Thalia spotted an error: I had miss-spelled the name of her young dragon, which should be 'Torchia', and I have corrected that.

I also asked about the Witches World gods, which she had told me are the same as the Greek gods from ancient times. I wondered if they lived in, or came to, Witches World. Thalia told me that they visit for festivals, but otherwise live on Mount Olympus. Thalia's god is Athene, so Thalia goes to Mount Olympus to discuss Monieage (pronounced 'Magicammon') celebrations.

top

Bomb City, book-in-progress

24 December 2008

Thalia has been writing a book called The Twins and Bomb City. Recently she has been distracted from the work by the arrival of a kitten called Lavy. To encourage Thalia to write more, I am putting the book so far as a download, here.

Thalia's Blog

Thalia now has her own blog at http://witches-world.blogspot.com/and she has made some entries, which I’ve copied here:

8th January 2009

Most dragons are in the middle of the mating season this means that the whole of WW is very busy laying and hatching eggs including Torchia the lilac dragon. She has infact layed a few eggs but they are not expected to hatch for a while.

Dragons eggs hatch about a week after they are layed. The female dragon leave her eggs sometimes but not for long. She nows her eggs are safe because 1 they are very well hidden. 2 because the nest are made out of ethier very hot or very cold things.

Monieage

The monieage celebrations over what humans call Christmas witches have been having gigantic celebrations during the 3 weeks of night that make manieage. They hold ribbons and swirl n twirl to resembal when WW was created ( at least 999000030 years before the human solar sytem was made). And have great dances scating over the ice they do not use icescates.

14 January 2009

Questions from the blog

Thalia said: 'Most dragons are in the middle of the mating season this means that the whole of WW is very busy laying and hatching eggs including Torchia the lilac dragon. She has infact layed a few eggs but they are not expected to hatch for a while. Dragons eggs hatch about a week after they are layed. The female dragon leave her eggs sometimes but not for long. She nows her eggs are safe because 1 they are very well hidden. 2 because the nest are made out of ethier very hot or very cold things.'

I asked two questions:

'If dragons' nests are made of very hot or very cold things, how is it that the baby dragons growing inside the eggs don't get frozen or cooked?' and

'You have said that WW is in a perpetual state of war since the demons came. Well, dragons are fierce and powerful creatures - at least traditionally they are supposed to be dangerous, which is why knights slayed them in the old stories - so will these new dragons be fighters on the side of the witches against the demons?'

Thalia told me the answers when we talked on the phone, so I thought I had better record what she told me.

1. A baby dragon has very big scales, out of all proportion to its little body, to keep it at a safe distance from the hot or cold egg shell until it hatches and leaves the nest. As it grows, it gets normal sized scales, and the big baby-scales are eventually hidden under adult scales.

2. Dragons certainly do fight the demons all the time, and they are tremendously fierce and powerful. Witches fight the demons with extremely secret spells, and it is vital that those spells are kept secret from the demons - and from their spies, presumably.