Isaque Solaris – Endless, The Angels Mix


"Dedicated to Dozite Mateus Nsifua (1985 – 2021), my great friend who will always be in everything I am and do."


Lighting one candle
With another candle –
Spring Evening
                 *** Yosa Buson (1716 - 1784) ***


Music by : 
https://soundcloud.com/isaque-solaris

Artwork by : 
https://soundcloud.com/brownsword

Mastered by : 
https://soundcloud.com/dare-2-b-different

Free gift to the universe – launched with love from planet Earth on the 11th of April 2021

Isaque Solaris - Endless, The Angels Mix

On that cool and sunny afternoon in early May, the little witch suddenly got into the mood to venture into the world of the humans once again.  She summoned her trusted friend, the Eurasian eagle-owl and soon they were flying towards the surreal and mysterious realm of the humans.  Since the persecutions of the 16th Century, witches have kept their distance from people.  A pure being like a witch is in any case not capable to understand the vices of mankind like greed, jealousy and discrimination.  So as a precaution, from her very first day in the forest at age 9, the little witch kept people out of the woods with the help of all forest animals.  But now, a decade later, she slowly had become more and more curious and mellow about the human world, which – according to some other young witches – isn’t all bad and even contains a surprising amount of beauty.  A few weeks earlier, the girl had made her very first trip to the human world, which was a weird and confusing experience, but also confirmed the stories that there’s quite a bit of beauty on the other side.
After flying for half an hour, the girl’s attention was drawn by a colorful gathering near the edge of a forest.  After a closer look, it turned out to be a music festival where a few thousands of people had gathered.  It was the very first time the little witch had heard sounds other than the singing of birds or the blowing of the wind.  Luckily it was a downtempo electronic music festival and not heavy metal, otherwise the girl would have been terrified.  The shy witch cautiously mingled with the crowd, while her friend the eagle-owl perched himself near the top of a big tree overlooking the whole festival perimeter.  Luckily for her, the dress code of the event was ‘fairy tale’ and her immaculately white dress didn’t draw too much attention, despite the fact that she was the only person who was walking barefoot.  She quickly felt at ease in the middle of all these people, who all looked warm and peaceful and obviously belonged to a kinder, gentler section of mankind.  And while the fancy dresses of the ‘fairies’ and ‘wizards’ were pretty accurate, the girl was astounded by the blatantly inaccurate depiction of witches, which couldn’t be further away from the truth.
After a few minutes, the witch was stopped by a steward who asked her why she wasn’t wearing a pink bracelet like all other spectators.  But given the fact that she doesn’t speak a single word of any human language, the witch couldn’t understand what he was saying.  So she looked at him with an innocent face, and for a split second he looked into her mesmerizing green eyes, which was long enough to put him into a state of deep hypnosis.  Without realizing what he was doing, the steward took a new pink bracelet out of his pocket and fastened it around the girl’s wrist.  After that, he stayed in a state of hypnosis for an awkward 2 minutes, before the startled girl finally managed to bring him back to his senses with a wake-up spell.
After that incident, the girl walked to the quietest corner of the festival ground, where children were playing and jumping in a bouncy castle.  The young witch seemed to have an irresistible effect on them and soon she found herself surrounded by a group of ebullient kids, who were especially fascinated by her sparkling green eyes.  Luckily none of the kids got hypnotized by the witch’s gaze and they played together for many hours.  Finally, it was well after midnight when the witch and the eagle-owl flew back to the safety of their forest.
The following day, all the forest animals got very curious and inquisitive about the mysterious pink bracelet around the girl’s wrist.  And after sunset, the little witch lit a bonfire and told many fascinating stories to the forest animals about her odyssey in the wonderful and weird human world … 

Connect with the wizz :
https://soundcloud.com/vincentgericke

Photo credits : oOhyperblaster

Witchtape #93 | Guest Wizz : Vincent Gericke

That sunny morning in June, the little witch woke up in her home forest, which was exceptionally lush and green after some good rains in the month of May.  Since one week, the rain had stopped and the forest was really sunny and pleasant.  While she was still stretching her body before getting up, her friend the eagle-owl flew by in a hurry, warning her that there was an intruder in the forest.  That was really strange, as humans are strictly barred from entering these woods by guard animals.  The girl quickly slipped into her immaculately white dress and followed the eagle-owl.  Within minutes, she saw the ‘intruder’.  It appeared to be a little blond girl, around 9 years of age (which was by actually the witch’s own age when she arrived in the forest 10 years ago).  Judging from her clothes, the girl was obviously human, yet she seemed to feel herself very much at ease in the woods, and she was playing and giggling with a family of squirrels.  
The little witch approached the girl, who didn’t get scared when she saw her.  For a few seconds they looked at each other and it struck the witch that this child had all the typical traits of a witch : sparkling eyes, a shiny soft skin and a character nose.  Her pale blue eyes were beyond mesmerizing and seemed to be the gate to a vast inner universe.  The little girl felt immediately comfortable with the witch and they engaged in a long tender hug.  Despite the fact that they were unable to talk to each other, they immediately felt a strong bond between them … which strangely seemed to have started centuries ago.  When walking through the forest, all animals got very curious and wanted to say hello to the new little blond girl.  The witch requested the weaver birds to sew a tiny white dress for the girl.  One hour later the dress was ready and the child was very eager to try it on.  She looked incredibly cute in the immaculately white dress and all the forest animals uttered a collective ‘awwwwww’.  She also had to shed her sneakers as witches always go barefoot.  The first steps were a bit hesitant but once she felt the soft clover of the central meadow, the girl started to dance spontaneously, and she played with the butterflies.  Soon the place was filled with laughter and giggles.  The child had never been so happy in her whole life.  Her human life had been a true ordeal with both her parents falling prey to drug abuse … and she was really determined to live a pure life far away from substances and all other vices of mankind, devoting her life to mother earth.
Next, the girl got introduced to the nymph (who is protecting the little oak tree which is destined to become the future mother tree of the forest) and they all took a dive in the nymph’s pond, where the little girl played with the dragonflies.  For the rest, she simply enjoyed floating on the still water surface and looking at the little white clouds flying high in the blue sky.  Despite being very playful, the girl also had the ability to be very peaceful and serene, just like a real witch.
The day quickly passed and soon nighttime fell.  A family of dunnocks had made a soft bed of moss for the blond girl, but she preferred to snuggle with the little witch and got ready for her first night in the open air.  The child was wondering why it was so dark, but she forgot about all that when she looked up in awe at the stars and the train of the milky way, which were clearly visible from the enchanted forest.  And that’s how she slowly drifted away into a blissful sleep … her very first night in the open air … her very first night as a witch …

Connect with the wizard : 
https://soundcloud.com/ruslan-dudaev

Photo credits : Tatyana Domnicheva

Witchtape #96 | Guest Wizz : Ruslan Dudaev

It was still dark when the little witch woke up before dawn in the small cave on the Faroe Islands, where she had spent the night on her way to the witch coven in far-away Iceland.  The wind was howling at gale force and incessant rains were lashing down on the steep cliffs.  These conditions were absolutely unsuitable to start flying, so the girl calmly took her breakfast in the warm company of her friends the sheep.  A few minutes later, a ray of sunlight suddenly broke through the clouds and the little witch took it as a sign that weather conditions were about to improve, and she felt the unstoppable urge to start flying.  Within minutes she was flying over the endless North Atlantic Ocean in northwestern direction, battling the gale-force winds to stay on course, and on several occasions a gust of wind even flipped her over.  Yet the little witch was determined to reach Iceland, the home of the Eldnorns, the mythical fire witches.  After half a day of flying there was still no land in sight, but fortunately the storm had abated and now she was flying under a glorious blue sky, while gannets accompanied the girl on the last stage of her flight to Iceland.  After a while she saw the rugged coastline of this remote island.  Her inner compass told her to keep on flying northwestwards, while she flew over a glorious landscape of high volcanoes and vast glaciers.  The girl had never seen such a dramatic treeless landscape, which was very different from her lush green home forest in the lowlands of northwestern Europe.  The little witch found out that Iceland was a really big island while she crossed it all the way to the west coast, eventually flying westwards over a long peninsula, where she headed straight to a steep volcano rising up from the ocean.  She immediately realized this must be the mythic Kirkjufell mountain.  After reaching the foot of this pyramid-shaped mountain, she suddenly felt she had reached her destination and gently touched down near a beautiful waterfall, where two fire witches were waiting for her.  For a moment they looked at each other in silence.  The two dark-haired women were wearing the same white dress with orange symbols like the one she had found on the Faroe Islands.  There was no doubt these were Eldnorns.  Their pale blue eyes were beyond mesmerizing … intensely icecold and red-hot at the same time.  Both Eldnorns welcomed their European visitor with a long group hug.  The eldest witch was a staggering 850 years of age.  In Iceland there had barely been witch’s persecutions during the 16th and 17th century which meant that – unlike in Europe - almost all old witches were still alive.  The little witch was now very curious about the secret of the fire witches.  She sensed these witches must have captured the power of these volcanoes, geysers and hot springs, so the little witch was more than a bit surprised when the Eldnorns slipped out of their white-and-orange dresses and took a shower under the waterfall.  The European witch joined them and she was soon shivering from the cold (the temperatures were barely above the freezing point).  The fire witches were seemingly not in a hurry to get out of the icecold water and the little witch’s body was getting so cold now, that it was turning a bit blue.  Then the eldest witch whispered softly in her ear ‘the fire is within you’.  Both Eldnorns were repeating this mantra over and over again, and suddenly the little witch felt her belly getting warm again.  It was a special kind of heat which she had never felt before, while it irresistibly spread to her chest and shoulders, her arms and legs and a few minutes later her whole body was glowing, even her toes and fingertips.  The little witch was a real fire witch now, and her life would never be the same …

Connect with the wizard : 
https://soundcloud.com/geeibk

Picture of the Kirkjufell mountain by Peter Jesche

Witchtape #106 | Guest Wizz : Gee

On that cold and windy morning in late November, Hekske (the little witch) woke up when Falke (the 9 year old witch apprentice) snuggled once again under her moss blanket to keep warm and dry.  The weather was absolutely miserable with ice-cold melting snow lashing down mercilessly on the forest.
After getting up, the girls drank a warm mug of herbal tea and the mood of the little witch brightened up considerably when she realized it was the full moon day, which meant she’ll participate in the monthly witch coven (which always takes place in a different location and in the ever-changing company of two other witches).  This also meant that Falke would stay behind in the forest, as she was still too young to participate in covens (generally witches start participating at age 13).
After breakfast, Hekske sensed it was time to fly away so she kissed goodbye to a tearful Falke, who didn’t like the prospect of staying back alone in the forest for one cold and long night.  After taking off, the little witch followed her inner compass in eastern/southeastern direction.  As always, she had no clue where she was heading to.  She got very curious, as it was the very first time she was flying into this direction.  After 10 minutes of flying, Hekske heard a child’s voice yelling from behind and when she looked back, she was surprised to see that Falke was flying behind her.  After rejoining the little witch, Falke explained that she had felt an irresistible urge to take off, which meant that mother earth had decided that she was now old and mature enough to participate in her very first coven.
After a seemingly endless flight over hills and valleys, they arrived in the Mátra  mountains in northern Hungary.  The girls sensed that they had reached their destination, and gently touched down near the edge of a vast forest near the top of a hill.  From this vantage point, they had a breathtaking view over the rolling hills and great plains of Hungary.
A few minutes later, 7 elves came out of the woods and gave a warm welcome to their visitors.  They explained that the Nagyboldogasszony was waiting for them.  The 2 witches had never heard from this creature, so the elves explained that she is a goddess who lives for over 4000 years in this area, and she is the mother goddess and protectress of all beings who live in her realm.
The witches realized that they were not going to participate in a witch coven, but in something much bigger.  The deeper they moved into the forest, the more they became aware of the strong divine energy of this place, and they felt this wholesome energy permeate inside their body and soul.  On the way to the Nagyboldogasszony, they passed through 7 gates, and after crossing each gate, the energy got more intense, while their pace got slower and slower.  Finally, after passing through the seventh gate, both girls finally saw the goddess, bathing in light and radiating pure goodness.  Easily the most impressive creature they had ever seen.  It took a few minutes to get used to all these strong energies, after which the witches felt ready to participate in the most intense and soul-shaking ceremony of their whole life …
(to be continued)

Connect with the wizard : 
https://soundcloud.com/juliimmai

Cover artwork : Elena
https://www.goldbachfoto.de

Witchtape #109 | Guest Wizz : djjuliimmaï

(Story continued from Witchtape #106)
After having passed the test of the cold under the frigid waterfall, the two Icelandic witches gave a real Eldnorn dress to the little witch, while singing a sweet age-old mystic song.  The European witch looked in admiration at the beautiful long white dress with the orange flame patterns.  Now she was fully accepted by the Eldnorns, the reclusive tribe of Icelandic fire witches.  After that ceremony, the eldest witch (850 years of age) pointed towards the west.  The 3 women started walking into that direction, and after climbing over the crest of a hill, they had a majestic view over the rugged landscape of volcanoes and glaciers.  They kept on walking westwards until they reached the foot of a smouldering volcano, after which they started climbing the intimidating mountain.  For the little witch (who was used to her cosy green home forest in north-western Europe), it felt as if she was moving around on another planet.
After one hour of climbing, the 3 barefoot women reached a desolate and windy plateau.  At one point, a geyser erupted in front of them.  The little witch had never seen anything like this.  Soon afterwards, the witches reached their destination, which was an almost perfectly circular pond next to the geyser.  The water had a surreal blueish-greenish glow and the rocks on the edge had equally surreal yellow and orange colors.  The little witch was not exactly in the mood to jump into the water on this windy and cold plateau, but she quickly changed her mind when she realized this was a hot-spring.  The Icelandic witches promptly slipped out of their Eldnorn dresses and the little witch followed their example, hoping that they would quickly jump into the warm water.  But after taking the temperature of the water with the tip of her toes, she realized that the water was way too hot for a quick dive.  She noticed that the Icelandic witches were cautiously wading into the blue-green water so she followed their example.  It was a really weird experience, with her feet red-hot and the rest of her body ice-cold.  Slowly she waded deeper and deeper, until her legs were completely immersed in the hot water.  Now the lower half of her body was boiling hot while the upper half was freezing cold.  Just at that moment, the nearby geyser erupted again, surrounding the witches by thick fog.  This made the experience even more surreal, as for a short while, the little witch couldn’t see where she was.  She decided to follow her instinct and continued wading deeper and deeper into the hot spring, until finally only her shoulders and head were above the surface.  The little witch closed her eyes and felt how the intense heat was engulfing her whole body (except her cold nose).  Then, all of a sudden she got a rude awakening when the volcano started to rumble again in the distance, while she felt her legs shake from an earthquake.  The European girl was unsure whether this was dangerous or not as the rumbling was louder and sounded more intimidating than ever before.  But the Icelandic witches looked at her with a serene smile.  There was no reason to worry, at least not for witches.  Meanwhile the fog had dissipated and the girl got an excellent view of the summit of the volcano, which was spewing lava now.  Little did she know that the top of this volcano would be their next destination…

Connect with the wizard : 
https://soundcloud.com/westandhill

Photo credits : Nejron Photo

Witchtape #110 | Guest Wizz : West & Hill

After weeks of dark and gloomy days, Hekske (the little witch) was delighted to wake up under a glorious sunrise.  For the first time this winter, temperatures had dropped below zero and the whole forest was covered under a mesmerizing layer of ice crystals.  Falke (the 9 year old witch apprentice) had once again snuggled under the moss blanket of the witch to keep warm.  At that moment, the little witch realized it was the very day of the winter solstice, which is always a wonderful day filled with mystic rituals.  This year’s winter solstice was extra powerful as it coincided with a full moon.
After drinking a warm cup of herbal tea, the 2 barefoot witches (accompanied by their trusted friend Bob The Owl) went to the sacred place where the little oak tree was growing.  Although this tiny tree was only 3 feet high, it was destined to live for a thousand years and become the future mother tree of the forest.  The little oak was being guarded 24/7 by Lalita, a tree nymph from South-East Asia, who gave a warm welcome hug to Hekske and Falke.
Lalita took a beautiful crow’s plume and a flacon with magic ink, getting ready for a body painting session.  It was Falke’s very first time and she was of course very excited.  Hekske took the feather,  dipped it in the ink pot and drew a few flames on Falke’s feet and lower legs.  She had learned these flame symbols from the Eldnorns, fire witches from Iceland.  Within seconds, Falke experienced the power of the magic ink while her legs and feet became pleasantly warm and the symbols themselves emitted an intense orange glow.  After that, the magic feather decided to make a drawing on Falke’s back.  The little witch held the feather in her hand, but she didn’t control its movements.  At first it wasn’t clear what the pen was drawing, and only after a few minutes the women could see that the feather was drawing a mysterious portal, half rock and the other half an old thick oak tree.
At that moment, the earth started to tremble and the surrounding trees started to shake.  To their bewilderment, the 3 girls saw a huge rock emerging from under the ground with a loud rumble.  A few minutes later, the rock stopped moving and an eerie silence descended upon the forest.  Falke, Hekske and Lalita were speechless and petrified.  The rock was actually some kind of pillar and was standing upright, around 3 meter tall.  
After a few minutes, the forest animals emerged from their shelters and Pegasus, the old wise fox, observed the giant rock with great interest.  He concluded that this must have been the prehistoric menhir of which some age-old stories existed.  It appears to have been buried under the ground for centuries.  This discovery confirmed the old legends that this spot used to be a holy place in ancient times.  At that moment, Hekske looked at the drawing on Falke’s back, and she noticed that the standing rock had exactly the same shape as the menhir.  But that was still only one half of the gate, so where was the oak tree which formed the other half?  Then it dawned to the 3 women that the tiny oak tree was standing just 2 meters away from the menhir, and a branch seemed already to have grown a few centimeters into the direction of the giant stone.  A mystic gate in the becoming …

Connect with the witch : 
https://soundcloud.com/narfux

Photo credits : Faula @shutterstock

Witchtape #111 | Guest Witch : Narfux

On that windy morning in mid-winter, Hekske (the little witch) woke up when Falke (the 9 year old witch apprentice) had once again crept under her moss blanket to keep warm and dry.  The weather was exceptionally warm for a day in January, but soon afterwards torrential rain started to lash down on the forest, making the girls decide to snuggle a bit deeper under their moss blanket.  Despite the horrendous weather, the witches were in an excellent mood as it was the first day of the new year, which meant that they would light their annual bonfire and exchange stories with the forest animals.
After getting up, the girls drank a warm mug of herbal tea before scrambling for shelter behind a huge beech tree for yet another rainstorm, which was so violent that the thunder was rumbling several times (which is a very rare event in January).  This surely meant that there was an unusual amount of energy in the air, and the witches were wondering what was going to happen during the new year bonfire.
Luckily, soon afterwards the rain abated and a few hours later, the little witch saw that it was dry enough and asked a squirrel family to go and collect firewood.  A few minutes later, a pile of firewood was lying at the feet of the witches, and the girls were already busy evacuating all little creatures from the heap, with some help from Harald The Spider.  The little witch was looking forward to light the fire, as she had learned a few new magic tricks from the Eldnorns, the reclusive tribe of Icelandic fire witches which she had visited last month.
Suddenly they heard some excited yells in the distance.  The witches hurried towards the remote area of the forest where the screams were coming from, and they soon found out it was Zhanna The Squirrel who had discovered something really sensational : a big egg.  The little witch was completely mesmerized by this mysterious egg, which was sparkling in all colors of the rainbow.  This could only be a dragon’s egg!!  This was a sensational discovery indeed, as dragons had gone extinct in this part of Europe since the Middle Ages.  But now that the witches had chased away the humans from this forest, it had once again become a safe haven for all animals and plants, and the dragons must have sensed that too.  Yet, it was a complete mystery how this dragon egg had ended up here in this forest.
Following her deeper instinct, the little witch decided to take the egg in her hands.  After the first touch, the egg immediately started to glow and they could even see a pink pulsing light deep inside the egg.  The girl decided to take the egg near the bonfire, where a family of dunnocks was already weaving a safe nest for the dragon egg.  Dragon eggs can only hatch if they are being kept at the correct temperature.  Hekske and Falke cuddled the egg for a long time and made the solemn pledge to protect this dragon egg at all cost.  This was surely going to become an epic new year …

Connect with the wizard : 
https://soundcloud.com/spak

Photo credits : quadshock

Witchtape #112 | Guest Wizz : Späk

There once was a little witch who was standing under a very tall tree. With her sweet voice she was singing a song for her friend the sloth, who was hanging on a branch near the top of the tree. They had become friends a few years earlier, when she saved his life (witches are the protectors of all animals of the forest, and this starts from a tender age). The little girl had a burning desire to talk to her friend, but that was never possible because the tree was too tall to climb. So this ritual went on for years, day after day.
Meanwhile the young witch was growing taller and stronger and one day she found the courage to start climbing the tree. To her great surprise that went very well and a few minutes later she was already halfway. Then she looked down. Immediately a fear gripped her and her body froze. Her heartbeat was racing and she was too afraid to go up or down. She was completely stuck. Then she looked at her friend the sloth. He smiled and whispered calmly ‘You can do it, girl’.
Instantly, the witch felt the tension disappear from her body. She climbed with the agility of a squirrel all the way to her friend, who gave her a big hug when they were finally reunited. For the rest of the day they stayed together on a branch high up in the canopy of the tree, talking to each other and at other moments just enjoying each other’s company in silence. She had boundless admiration for his endless patience, and he had a deep appreciation for her youthful energy and unconditional love for the forest.

(…)

This was the start of the very first fairy tale I wrote about the now-famous little witch, back in the summer of 2017 for Witchtape #6.  At the time I was really happy with the story, but I saw it as an one-off experiment.  It was only half a year later (for Witchtape #14) that I wrote a second episode.  That was the start of a real flood of stories, with the little witch growing up from a child to adolescent to young adult, meeting other witches during her epic trips all over Europe and beyond, even as far as Iceland and Saudi Arabia.  Meanwhile, her home forest developed into an increasingly sophisticated ecosystem and safe haven for rare animals and plants, embodied by the future mother tree of the forest, which is being protected by a clan of badgers and now also by a tree nymph who came all the way from South-East Asia.  And in between, the little witch even had time to find love in the African rainforest.  I don’t know what the future will bring for the little witch, but surely she’ll still have lots of epic experiences in her home forest and in faraway places.  And lots of little witches and wizards … 

Witchtape #114 | Guest Witch : Maria Theresia von Eberg
https://soundcloud.com/maria-theresia-von-eberg

Mastered by Elec
https://soundcloud.com/elec-brown

Photo credits : Paul Steven

5 Year Anniversary Special | Maria Theresia von Eberg

((Story continued from Witchtape #110)
After having passed the test of the cold under the frigid waterfall, and the test of the heat in the hot spring, Hekske (the little witch) followed in the tracks of the 2 Eldnorns who were climbing to the summit of an intimidating active volcano.  The Eldnorns are an old tribe of fire witches who live in a remote area of Iceland.  After a long and gruelling climb they finally reached the rim of the volcano.  The little Flemish witch (who had never seen a volcano in her whole life) was curious how the crater of a volcano would look like.  She peered over the rim and to her great surprise, there was a frozen lake inside the crater.  The view from the summit of the mountain was absolutely breathtaking and the 3 witches had a majestic view over a rugged landscape of volcanoes and glaciers.  For the little witch (who was used to her cosy green home forest in Flanders), it felt as if she was on another planet.  Just at that moment, the volcano started to rumble once again.  The Eldnorn witches didn’t seem to be the least bit worried and the 3 women started to descend into the crater, led by the eldest Eldnorn (850 years of age).  The barefoot witches cautiously descended over the sharp rocks which had surreal colors, ranging from deep red over emerald green to bright yellow.  Finally they reached the edge of the frozen lake.  The ice was very thick and had uncountable shades of blue and looked absolutely mesmerizing.
The barefoot witches stepped onto the ice and cautiously ventured around the frozen lake.  For Hekske it was a surprisingly pleasant feeling on the soles of her feet.  After a while they returned to the shore and the youngest Eldnorn (only 502 years of age) opened the bag she had been carrying all the time.  To Hekske’s great surprise, she pulled out 3 pairs of white ice skates.  The little witch had never worn skates of her whole life (or shoes for that matter) so the Icelandic witches helped her into her skates.  Before stepping onto the ice, the eldest witch uttered a spell.  Hekske was astonished to find out that the skates somehow knew exactly where to go, and she started skating effortlessly.  After making 3 counterclockwise tours of the frozen lake, the 3 witches got together and started to perform a spontaneous ice dance, moving around with graceful movements in their sparkling white dresses with the mystic orange Eldnorn symbols.  Finally the 3 witches converged near the centre of the lake, where they touched hands and formed a circle.  The little witch sensed that the crater lake was very deep at this point, and that there was even a direct connection all the way to the centre of the Earth. The witches sang some sweet age-old Eldnorn songs, which resonated back from the near vertical inner slopes of the crater.  After finishing with singing, the 3 witches stood still, closed their eyes and enjoyed the absolute silence of their environment.  Then all of a sudden a rumble emerged from straight below, louder and more menacing than ever before.  The little witch clearly felt the ice tremble.  And when looking down, she noticed that air bubbles were forming underneath the ice.  The Icelandic witches still didn’t seem to be very worried, but decided anyway that the ice was getting too hot under their feet.  After getting out of their skates, they climbed back to the rim of the crater, while the volcano rumbled intermittently with increasing frequency and intensity.  Finally, there was a really long and loud rumble which lasted for minutes, while the ice of the crater lake had become completely white because of gases building up under the ice.  Then there was suddenly an eerie silence.  It was as if mother earth was holding her breath … the 3 witches looked at each other and waited for what was to come …

Connect with the wizard : https://soundcloud.com/dj_andara

Picture : frozen lake inside the Kerid (Kerið) crater, Iceland (credits : Andrii Zabolotnyi)

Witchtape #115 | Guest Wizz : ∆ N D ∆ R ∆

On that full-moon day in February, Hekske (The Little Witch) took off from her home forest in Flanders and flew a whole day and a whole night in Southeastern direction over mountains and valleys, before witnessing a glorious sunrise over the Mediterranean Sea.  Soon afterwards, she saw land in the distance and she knew this was the Levant.  The little witch recognized Mount Hermon in the distance, and decided to fly around the summit, before turning right and descending towards the Sea of Galilee, after which she continued flying in Southwestern direction over a varied landscape of shrublands and fig groves.  Then she saw a lone olive tree in the distance with 2 women in a long white dresses standing in its shadow.  The little witch gently touched down near the olive tree and immediately recognized Ahava, a 6000 year-old witch she had already met 2 years ago (see Witchtape #59).  The other witch introduced herself as Asiya, and belonged to a new tribe of young witches in the Sinai Peninsula.  Despite her tender age of 15, she was the oldest witch of this tribe.  The 3 witches gave each other a long welcome hug, after which Ahava pointed at the majestic olive tree.  She explained this tree was already standing here when she had to leave the Levant some 2000 years ago.  The 3 witches looked at the beautiful olive tree in awe, and touched it with their hands, after which they spontaneously started to sing a sweet age-old song.
Ahava explained that the people in this part of the Levant were living on bad terms, and that even a wall had been constructed to prevent a full-blown war to erupt between the 2 groups.  Luckily, the witches from both sides of the wall are best friends and only exchange friendship, love and falafel recipes between each other.
At that moment, Asiya had a sudden vision which could only mean one thing : militants from one side were about to launch missiles aimed at the people on the other side of the wall.  Instinctively, the 3 witches took off and flew straight to place where the mayhem was about to happen.  A few minutes later the little witch saw more than 10 missiles hurling straight towards them from the southwest, and a few seconds later she heard a thundering sound coming from the opposite direction with countless ‘iron dome’ missiles being launched to intercept the incoming projectiles.  Hekske was really terrified when she realized she was trapped in the middle of all these missiles, but then Ahava and Asiya calmly took her hand to form a circle of witches in mid-air.  One witch is not strong enough for this, but when 3 witches get together…
They serenely started to sing a sweet age-old witch’s lullaby, which had a strong effect on space and time.  The missiles from both sides were slowing down until they were just floating in the air at a few meters from each other.  Then Ahava uttered a magic spell, and the missiles were disintegrating in slow-motion, until they were completely pulverized into smithereens, which all started to emit a soft glowing light.  While the witches decided to leave the place and fly back to the old olive tree, millions of little lights were lazily floating around in the air, and would continue to illuminate the sky the whole night, before gently descending to the surface the next morning.  And children from both sides of the wall would play with the twinkling little lights for many hours, until they would finally vanish into thin air.  
The people of the area never found a scientific explanation for these mysterious events and that night would forever be known as the ‘Night Of The Starry Dome’ …

Connect with the witch : 
https://soundcloud.com/yondertapes

Photo : Olive tree at the Mar Elias Monastery, Jerusalem (credits : John Theodor)

Witchtape #116 | Guest Witch : Yonder

On that sunny and cold morning in late February, Hekske (The Little Witch) was surprised to experience an unstoppable urge to fly.  This was completely unexpected as the last full moon was only 11 days ago, and witches normally only fly out on full moon days, when they go to their monthly coven.  Anyway, after kissing goodbye to Falke (the 9-year old witch apprentice) and Lalita (the Asian tree nymph), the young witch surrendered to her urge and flew into the unknown.  She had no idea where she was flying to, but she knew she would – as always - reach her destination by following her inner compass.
After taking off, the little witch headed straight towards the east with great speed, meaning the destination must be pretty far away.  After a day and a night of flying, she sensed she had reached her destination and gently touched down on an abandoned railway in the middle of a snow-covered forest, where she was welcomed by 2 other witches.  After a long welcome hug, the 2 women explained that the army of the country from the Eastern side of the river had invaded this land and a horrific and senseless war was raging between both parties.  A pure being like a witch has great trouble to understand things like borders and wars, but the little witch briefly felt the agony and suffering which was happening in this beautiful country, as well as the pain inside the heart of the peace-loving people of the attacking country.
Then the eldest witch spoke these wise words ‘However bleak and hopeless the current situation seems to be, if you look far enough in the future, peace and harmony will be restored between the people on both sides of the river’.  She stood up, and exactly at that moment 6 young witches and 6 wizards came from the 12 wind directions to converge in this place.  The 3 witches welcomed all of them, and explained that this very place is the very center of Europe, as it’s neither East nor West, nor North nor South.  This place is the beating heart of Europe and today would be the day to give shape to the future.  While listening to all these explanations, the 12 young witches and wizards were not paying too much attention as they were too busy sneaking glances and shy smiles at each other.  After that, the 6 young witches and 6 wizards were being left alone and slowly they split up into 6 couples.  Although there were a few surprises as this included one witch-witch and one wizz-wizz couple, there was one constant among all couples… one person was dressed in red, blue and white and the other half of the couple in yellow and blue.  The eldest witch explained that the blue and yellow dress is worn by the people of the west bank of the river, and the red-blue-white colors by the people of the east bank.
The 6 couples started to stroll hand-in-hand along the railroad through the cold and leafless forest.  Actually, this railway line is known as the ‘Tunnel Of Love’ and is considered as the most romantic place in Europe (but less so in winter).  And then something magic happened.  One of the couples exchanged their first shy kiss, and the color of their clothes immediately changed to a bright pink, while the temperature suddenly shot up and the surrounding trees got fresh green leaves.  The other couples noticed this, and soon they were all exchanging tender kisses, while all the trees along the railway track became green.  Meanwhile a soft spring sun started to shine while all kinds of birds started to sing.  While the war was still raging around the forest, a new spring had already arrived in this Tunnel Of Love…

Witchtape #117 by Überhaupt & Außerdem

Connect with the wizards : 
https://soundcloud.com/ueberhaupt_ausserdem

Picture : The ‘Tunnel Of Love’ (Ukrainian: Туне́ль Коха́ння) near Klevan, Ukraine (credits : Ruslan Ivantsov)
https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A2%D1%83%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C_%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%85%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8F

Witchtape #117 | Guest Wizards : Überhaupt & Außerdem

It was a beautiful sunny day in March and easily the warmest day of the year in the witch’s forest.  Despite a temperature of only 13°C, the witches got in the mood for their first dive of the year into the Nymph’s Pond.  So Hekske (the little witch), Falke (the witch apprentice) and Lalita (the Asian tree nymph) slipped out of their dresses and cautiously waded into the pond.  After a few minutes, they had gotten used to the cold water and they even dived below the surface.  While completely under water, Hekske felt something weird happening.  The water suddenly became much warmer and the color turned from murky brown into pure aquamarine.  When she popped up above the surface, she realized – much to her bewilderment – that she was in the middle of a lush green tropical rainforest.  The temperature of the water was very pleasant, so the little witch was not in a hurry to get out of the pond, swimming lazily around in the company of some colorful fish.  After a while, the girl saw a huge snake swimming towards her.  This was easily the biggest snake she had ever seen.  The anaconda gently curled around the little witch and could easily have crushed her.  But witches have nothing to fear from animals, and this was just a tender embrace to welcome the girl into the Brazilian rainforest.
A little later, a family of giant brown rodents arrived near the edge of the pond.  The sweet-looking animals looked at the little witch with great curiosity.  The girl decided to get out of the water and immediately started to frolic with the young animals.  The mother told her that they were a family of capybaras and she also mentioned that the local witch had hung a white dress on a nearby branch, because she was expecting an European witch to arrive.  The little capybaras were fascinated by the witch’s pale-white skin (a color which they had never seen before) and couldn’t stop touching her.  After a lazy stroll through this garden of Eden, the capybaras showed the immaculately white dress to the little witch, who tried it on immediately.  Miraculously, it had the perfect size, although it was much shorter than the dresses she used to wear in her home forest in Flanders.  In any case, it was perfectly suited for the hot and humid Brazilian climate.  After that, the little witch was in no hurry to go and meet the local witch, as she was too busy observing all the colorful birds which were flying around in this forest, like hummingbirds, macaws and araçaris.  This place was a true Garden Of Eden and the little witch was curious what would come next …

Witchtape #118 | Guest Wizz : Juliano Gomez

Connect with the wizard :
https://soundcloud.com/julianogomez

Photo Credits : Dea e Bruno
https://www.shutterstock.com/nl/g/deaebruno

Witchtape #118 | Guest Wizz : Juliano Gomez

On the eve of the Spring equinox, Hekske (the little witch) and Falke (the 9-year old witch apprentice) kissed good night to Lalita, the nymph who is the protectress of the little oak tree.  This young tree is only 3 feet high, but is destined to live for 1000 years and become the future mother tree of the witch’s forest.  Actually, the March equinox is a very special moment for the nymph, as she arrived exactly 2 years ago in the witch’s forest in Flanders, after an epic 2-year walk all the way from the far end of the Malayan peninsula in South-East Asia.  So, after her evening yoga session, the nymph didn’t go to sleep as she had other plans.  She gently woke up the family of badgers (who live in an elaborate network of tunnels around the little oak tree) and they got to work.  Lalita had collected immaculately white sand and pitch-black charcoal and asked the badgers to draw patterns around the little tree with these 2 materials.  The animals couldn’t see what they were drawing in the dark night, so they drew all kinds of mystic symbols by simply following their instinct.  They worked frenetically all night long and it was only in the first morning light that they finally could see what they had been drawing all the time.  Magically, the white sand and the charcoal had arranged itself in mesmerizing geometrical pattens, like circles, triangles and octagons.  Exactly at that moment Hekske and Falke arrived at the scene and they were awestruck by this beautiful and elaborate black & white figure.  Lalita explained that this is a yantra, a magical maze of geometrical patterns with many hidden layers, and with the little oak tree right in the middle… the holy ‘bindu’ point.  The girls held a morning yoga session around the yantra and after that, Hekske and Lalita walked barefoot over the yantra until they could touch each other, with the tiny oak in between them.  They looked each other in the eyes … the bright green eyes of the little European witch locking with the intense black eyes of the Asian nymph.  After a few minutes, they raised their right hands and laid it on the chest of the other woman… the milk white skin of the witch touching the golden brown skin of the nymph, feeling their mutual heartbeats.  All the animals and birds who came to watch this ceremony, held their breath.  Then the girls started to move around in circles around the little tree.  First it was just a slow shuffle, but gradually they reached a state of ecstasy and whirled like dervishes around the future mother tree in increasingly fast circles.  Finally, they spun out of control and fell down.  After the dust had settled, they saw that the black charcoal and white sand had arranged itself into a new circular pattern… yin yang …

Witchtape #119 | Guest Witches : Yin Yang (Musiphile & Iris Anahata)

https://soundcloud.com/yinyangberlin
https://soundcloud.com/musiphile
https://soundcloud.com/iris_anahata
https://soundcloud.com/yantraflow

Witchtape #119 | Yin Yang (Iris Anahata & Musiphile)

On a beautiful but cold April day, Hekske (the little witch) did her usual inspection round of the forest in the company of Falke (the 9-year old witch apprentice). She was very happy that the dark energy (which was present in one small section of the forest) had completely dissolved since a group of badgers settled in the middle of that area 3,5 years ago. She really loved these lively animals, who never seemed to get tired of their endless digging of tunnels and chambers and keeping their den (or sett) clean and tidy. And the girl was really reassured as the tiny oak tree (which she planted 4 years earlier and was destined to live for 1000 years and become a mother tree in a distant future) was growing safely right in the middle of the badger’s sett.  And the ever friendly and ebullient badgers had even dug a pond for Lalita, the nymph who had come all the way from South-East Asia to fulfil her life-long mission to protect this little tree.
When the witches approached the badgers’ territory, they were welcomed by Lalita while the guard badger saluted them and blew his whistle - which was the sign for all his clan members to converge around the girls. The elder badger took the word and explained that they had done a complete overhaul of their sett and that the witches may be interested in the result.  Traditionally, digging tunnels has always been a task of the male badgers, but – after drawing a yantra around the little tree last week – the female badgers sensed that something was missing.  The network of tunnels looked like an impenetrable fortress, but there was a deeper spiritual dimension lacking.  So the females started to dig spontaneously, just following their intuition.  And now we’re inviting you to come and have a look…
The girls were very excited to go inside the badger’s den, which is a very rare honor.  Hekske uttered a reduction spell, so that the 3 girls were small enough to enter the realm of the badgers.  Actually, Falke had even never been inside the sett and was very eager to have a look.  Along the way, Hekske lit up countless floating sparks, creating a spellbinding atmosphere in the dark tunnels.  After a while, they arrived at a junction.  When looking into the newly dug tunnel, they saw pink roots hanging down from the ceiling.  These were the roots of the future mother tree.  The witches were amazed to see how far the roots extended, up to 30 meters away from the little oak tree, which is still only 3 feet tall.  The youngest female badger explained that they had dug 11 concentric circles.  Hekske immediately remembered that the forest animals had arranged themselves automatically in 11 concentric circles, when she planted the little oak tree 4 years ago (see Witchtape #22).  And when the witches walked through these concentric tunnels, the pink roots lighted up and started to emit a heartbeat… the beating heart of the forest…

Connect with the artist : 
https://soundcloud.com/mikehaddad

Photo credits : Vaclav Matous

Witchtape #120 | Guest Wizz : Mike Haddad

For Hekske (the little witch), her first day in the Brazilian rainforest had passed like a spellbinding dream.  She frolicked with capybaras, flew around with araçaris, savoured the scent of bougainvilleas and ate juicy jabuticabas.  This place was truly a garden of Eden.  The day had been so intense that the girl didn’t notice that the sun was already going down and within minutes, the whole forest was plunged into darkness.  And – unlike in her home forest in Flanders – these woods didn’t become quiet during the night.  On the contrary, there were animal sounds everywhere, creating a mesmerizing symphony of enchanting sounds.  Then– without the slightest warning – torrential rains lashed down on the forest and the little witch was soon soaked to the bone.  Exactly at that moment, the girl felt the irresistible urge to go for a swim in the little lake.  So she slipped out of her immaculately white dress and waded into the water, until it was deep enough to let herself float on her back, while the thick rain drops gently massaged her cheeks.  She drifted further and further away from the shore of the lake and she soon found herself surrounded by the giant leaves of the Victoria amazonica water lily.  On top of one of these leaves, she saw a brightly colored frog.  He was so beautiful and cute, that she spontaneously gave him a tender kiss.  After that kiss, her body started to feel very weird and it felt as if her arms and legs were dissolving.  The little witch turned to her belly and started to swim with graceful serpentine movements.  At that moment, she realized that she had morphed into an anaconda and at the same time she sensed the presence of another giant anaconda.  Both water snakes gently twined their bodies together until they became completely entangled.  The other anaconda introduced herself as Liana, and she was the queen of the lake.  After a while it became clear that Liana was pregnant, after witch both snakes curled up even closer to each other.  The 2 anacondas continued with their graceful water ballet all night long, swimming 11 times around the lake.  It was only a few minutes before dawn that the little witch finally felt her arms and feet and long brown hair again … she had morphed back into her own body.  She gave one last tender hug to Liana, after which the giant anaconda swam away with graceful movements and vanished between the giant water lily leaves…

Witchtape #121 | Guest Witch : nyx

Connect with the witch : 
https://soundcloud.com/lue_nyx

Photo Credits : Kurit afshen

Witchtape #121 | Guest Witch : nyx

After an epic one-week stay in Iceland, time had come to fly home.  Hekske, the little witch, gave a long farewell hug to her new Eldnorn friends, the Icelandic fire witches who had taught her the art to master extreme heat and cold, and many other witchy secrets.  The eldest Eldnorn witch gave her one precious present, a pouch with ash from the Kerið volcano in South-western Iceland, which she had collected after the powerful eruption they had witnessed a couple of days ago (see Witchtape #115).
After one last kiss to her Icelandic friends, she flew towards the east over the North Atlantic Ocean.  It was an uneventful flight, with only one short stopover on the Faroe Islands to collect her immaculately white dress which she had left behind during a hurricane while on the way to Iceland.  The return flight was a million times easier than the grueling slog through the rain and the gale force winds one week earlier (see Witchtape #103).  And after a pleasant and sunny flight to Flanders, the little witch touched down in the center glade of her home forest, where she was welcomed by Falke (the 9-year old witch apprentice) and Lalita (the Asian tree nymph), who were intrigued by the white Eldnorn dress the little witch was wearing, with its unique orange flame patterns.
After a refreshing bath in the nymph’s pond and a good night’s sleep, the little witch told many stories about the mythical Eldnorn witches to her friends, after which she took the pouch of volcanic ash and made a tour around the witch’s forest, while still wearing the white & orange Eldnorn dress.  The girl spread small amounts of ash at dozens of different places around the forest, where it will serve as fertilizer for the plants and the trees, but at the same time spreading the wholesome energy of the fire witches all over the forest.  And after completing the tour around the woods, the little witch returned to the middle, where she spread the last bits of volcanic ash around the little oak tree (which is only 3 feet high but destined to live for 1000 years and become the mother tree of the forest).  The next few minutes nothing happened, but then the little tree started to react by emitting a faint orange glow, which started to pulsate like a heartbeat.  This pulse slowly became stronger, and gradually spread around until the whole forest was resonating with this pulse … spreading the unique ‘ice & fire’ energy of the Eldnorn witches all over the forest … 


Witchtape #122 | Guest Wizz : Malü

Connect with the wizard : 
https://soundcloud.com/maluinator

Photo credits : Irina Alexandrovna (Ironika)

Witchtape #122 | Guest Wizz : Malü

On that sunny day in late April, Hekske (The Little Witch) was surprised to feel an unstoppable urge to fly.  This was completely unexpected as the last full moon was only 11 days ago, and witches normally only fly out on full moon days when they go to their monthly coven.  Anyway, after kissing goodbye to the forest dwellers, the young witch surrendered to her deeper instincts and flew into the unknown.  She had no idea where she was flying to, but she knew she would – as always - reach her destination by following her inner compass.
After taking off, the little witch headed towards the north with a pretty slow speed, meaning the destination wasn’t very far away.  During the whole flight, she saw the North Sea on her left side.  After sensing she had reached her destination, she gently touched down on a windy beach where she was welcomed by a young Frisian witch with blond hair and blue eyes.  After a long welcome hug, the other witch welcomed Hekske in Friesland, which is a grassy and windy province near the Wadden Sea.  The witch (‘tsjoenster’ in the Frisian language), was way taller than Hekske and her blond hair made her look like a lioness.
At that moment, a third witch landed a few meters away from them.  After joining the welcome hug, the witch introduced herself as Necahual and she revealed that she belonged to the Toltec tribe from Central Mexico and was almost 1000 years old.  The other witches were dumbfounded by this sensational discovery, as Toltec witches were believed to have gone extinct 5 centuries ago.  This also meant she was a living treasure, as she was believed to be the only witch who still knew the ancient Toltec spells and recipes.  Finally she would be able to pass all this priceless knowledge and wisdom to other witches.
At that moment 2 cackling witches flew overhead.  The Frisian witch explained that they were heading towards the nearby island of Ameland, where a yoni circle ceremony would take place during the Walpurgis Night.  This is the night between April and May and every year witches meet in small groups at many different locations, like the Brocken Mountain in Germany or the Swedish Island of Blåkulla.
Hekske got very excited about all this, as she had never before participated in a yoni circle, nor celebrated Walpurgis Night.  So she asked – somewhat naively - when they would be flying to Ameland.  The Frisian witch responded dryly that only experienced witches are allowed to fly to the island, while the newbies have to walk.  The Wadden Sea is no ordinary sea, as it is very shallow and during low tide it is possible to walk from the mainland to the nearby islands.  The fact that it’s possible doesn’t mean it’s easy or straightforward, but the dauntless witches slipped enthusiastically out of their white dresses and ran into the sea.  But after a few minutes, Hekske – while plodding  through the sticky mud - realized that the going was lot tougher than expected.  Luckily, the ‘tsjoenster’ knew the passage through this endless labyrinth of gullies and shoals.  Yet, it was still a long and grueling slog, and they had to hurry because they needed to arrive on the other side before the tide would come in again.  The closer they got to the island, the tougher it became and the 3 witches had to help each other through a series of increasingly deep gullies.  And strangely, while Hekske got more and more tired, the 1000 year-old Toltec witch seemed to become stronger and friskier.  But then, while they could see the Island at only half a mile’s distance, they had to cross a gully which was by far the widest and deepest they had encountered, with a treacherous undercurrent in the murky salt water.  Would they be able to reach the other side?  The tsjoenster was unable to find the shallow ford across the gully (which is constantly shifting its position) and she started to look a bit worried … 
(to be continued)

https://soundcloud.com/r_3_n_a_t_a

Photo credits : Ironika

Witchtape #123 | Guest Witch : R3NATA

(Story continued from witchtapes 118 & 121)

After swimming in the lake all night long, Hekske (the little witch) kissed goodbye to her friend Liana The Anaconda and waded back to the shore, where a family of capybaras was waiting for her.  She found back her immaculately white dress after which the friendly animals showed her the way to a clearing in the lush green forest.  The little witch had the time of her life in the Brazilian forest, which was lush and green and full of diversity.  She observed all the colorful exotic birds, like hummingbirds, macaws and araçaris.  This place was a true Garden Of Eden.  The capybaras told Hekske that a gathering of witches would take place the following night in this clearing.  Soon afterwards, 10 Brazilian witches showed up, each of a different color.  Obviously, in this wonderful country, the diversity was not only limited to the wildlife.  There was even a witch from European descent who had fled the persecutions in Europe of the 17th century.  Another witch was born in West-Africa and there was even an 800 year old witch who belonged to the original native population of the Amazon forest.  But the majority of witches were born in Brazil and they all had a different skin color, ranging from pale white to pitch black and in between a lot of mesmerizing shades of brown.  This diversity also meant that the witches of Brazil were using a great variation of spells and recipes, which gave them great powers.
And – in contrast to the silent and introvert witches from Europe – Brazilian witches are way louder and ebullient.  And they know how to party.  This night was the night of their annual ‘Carnaval’ parade.  First all the witches dressed up in extravagant dresses, for which the macaws voluntary donated some plumes.  Meanwhile, the capybaras started to play the drum while a choir of araçaris started with an impressive vocal performance (these intelligent birds are capable of making a wide variety of sounds).  All this noise drew a lot of attention and soon a crowd of forest animals had gathered in the clearing.  The Carnaval Night is a night of peace and even the jaguars and ocelots participated in the festivities.  As time went on, the drums got louder and louder and all Brazilian witches started to move their hips and started a spontaneous sensual dance.  Also the little witch started to move her body. Obviously, she didn’t have the natural dancing talent of a Brazilian witch, but she was sensing an exuberant energy which she had never felt before.  As the night carried on, the dancing became more and more vigorous and with the colorful plumes of the macaws, this became a dazzling spectacle.  The little witch had never felt so energized as she danced all night long in the company of the 10 Brazilian witches who never seemed to get tired. They danced and danced until sunrise, when the drumming gradually abated and they all greeted the rising sun…    

Witchtape #124 | Guest Witch : Aleakim
https://soundcloud.com/4leakim

Photo credits : Ondrej Prosicky

Witchtape #124 | Guest Witch : Aleakim

Hi,
The seed of this witchtape was planted a few months ago, when I wrote this little fairy tale on a cold winter evening.  After I completed writing it, I had the strong feeling that this story needed a soundtrack and that it should be made by a true witch – so I sent the fairy tale to Hilary and she was really enthusiastic about this whole concept.  And this witchtape is the result.  Actually my story was only the starting point as Hilary worked it out as a truly epic witchy fairy tale... an instant spellbinder.
Peace & Hugs
Hekske

(Story continued from Witchtape #14)
Deep in the forest, the witch felt powerless and heartbroken as she witnessed one of her beloved trees crashing down.  She looked in anger at the logger and his big brown dog.  She needed to stop him from doing more harm, but the question was how.  Witches follow a strict code of non-violence and – contrary to popular belief – they don’t know any dark spells.  Then she had an idea.  The human was obviously a hopeless case, but she felt his Belgian shepherd might have some common sense.  So she sent her friend the owl to talk to the dog.  The bird swiftly flew to the big canine creature and explained him that his owner really should stop destroying mother earth.  The dog became very upset and disappointed and started barking at his boss.  The man tried to control his long-time companion but the dog became more and more ferocious.  Meanwhile the witch – who was still very young and insecure – gathered all her courage and approached the man from behind, with her owl sitting on her shoulder.  The dog saw this happening and stopped barking.  So the man went back to business, or at least that’s what he thought.  When he turned around, he had the biggest shock of his life and his face turned pale.  Standing just two meters in front of him was this girl with bright green eyes, staring straight into his eyes with a stone-cold face, while an owl was sitting on her shoulder doing the same with his big eyes.  The young  witch (who had never done a thing like this before) became all of a sudden very confident as she felt that every living being in the forest was supporting her, and she felt how her eyes really started to glow with a power she never knew she possessed.  The dog started barking again and this time he really attacked the logger.  The man looked away from the witch and made a quick getaway, in such a state of panic that he left his chainsaw behind.
Meanwhile the witch started comforting the agonizing dying tree with a new faithful friend on her side :  a big brown dog…
(story continues in Witchtape #22)

Connect with the artist : 
https://soundcloud.com/3hilary-3
https://www.facebook.com/HilaryMertaughDJ/
https://www.instagram.com/hilarymertaugh/

Photo credits :  Tanja Brandt
Visit Tanja’s website www.ingoundelse.de if you want to find out more about the amazing friendship between the dog Ingo and the owl Poldi.

This podcast is the result of pure love of music and is for promotional use only.  No commercial intentions.

Witchtape #16 | Guest Witch : Hilary Mertaugh

(Story continued from Witchtape #33)
After slowly waking up from a blissful sleep (which seemed to have lasted an eternity), the little witch was led to a pond by the two elder witches.  The girl was really excited when she saw that peaceful body of water, which was something she didn’t have in her own forest (it only featured a muddy swamp and a little stream but not such a cool little lake).  The witches walked cautiously side by side into the clear water.  The young novice felt the water rising up her legs, while the witches waded further and further away from the shore, until the water was at waist-height.  The water was pretty chilly but definitely not unpleasant, yet the cold sent a few shivers through her body.  The 3 women waded deeper and deeper until only their heads were above the surface.  The little witch had never swum in her whole life, yet she wasn’t the least bit afraid.  The eldest witch smiled at the young novice and took a dive into the lake, followed by the other senior witch.  The little witch hesitated for one moment, then she took a deep breath and dived into the water too.  She had never swum before, but witches know how to swim by instinct.  She soon became enchanted by the sheer beauty of the underwater world and got totally immersed into this aquamarine universe, simply enjoying the soothing feeling of water flowing over her skin, while her long brown hair got gently swept around into all kinds of directions.  After a while, she realized that she didn’t feel the urge to breathe (witches are known to be capable to stay underwater for over half an hour).  Soon the girl got accompanied by a few little fishes and also some small freshwater crabs and enjoyed their company so much, that she lost sight of the other 2 witches.  She was all alone in the water now, yet she wasn’t worried at all, just enjoying this mesmerizing submerged world full of beautiful plants and little creatures.  The little witch even became so much at ease that she relaxed every muscle of her body and it felt as if she was weightless while her body was being tossed around in slow motion by the shifting currents.  She felt a deep connection with the lake and with all the living beings around her, and in such a state of relaxation that she hardly noticed that the currents slowly dragged her deeper and deeper into the blue water, while there was still no trace of her two sisters witch.  It slowly dawned to the girl that this lake was much bigger and deeper than it had seemed when she was still looking at it from the shore…
(To be continued in witchtape #34)

Connect with the artist : 
https://soundcloud.com/fruiterama

Part of the Seaside Trip crew :  
https://soundcloud.com/rolandsons-seasidetrip

Rockettothesky - Grizzly Man (Kalandra Cover) @kalandra
Rising Appalachia & Human Experience - Mississippi
Aluna - Ayahuanina (Tomanka Remix)
Kora & Adrien - Nuit d’Afrique vs Arutani - I Lost Myself in You ft. Ru
Of Norway - It’s You (Bernstein Remix)
Iorie - Fool
Valleys Echo - Partners in Crime
Arutani ft. Zazou - Daydreaming
Haunted Water - Human Being ft. Anna Lena (Matata Remix)
Kyrill & Redford - Mutterkorn (Ninze & Okaxy Remix)
Daniel Bortz - Misery (Nu and Pauli vs. Acid Remix)
Treibgut - Eigengrau (Iorie Recolour)
Zimmer – Lost Your Mind (Christian Löffler Remix)
Menke - Nattskärra (Christian Löffler Remix)
Kalandra - Virkelighetens Etterklang @kalandra

Photo credits : Willyam Bradberry

Witchtape #35 | Guest Wizz : Fruiterama

Original track by Jean-Jacques Hertz & Francois Roy
Edit by...
https://soundcloud.com/vincentgericke
https://www.facebook.com/vincent.gericke

Mastering: Robert Trifunović

Free gift to the Universe :)

Launched with love from planet Earth on the night of the 22nd of December 2018 under a glorious full moon, during the Winter Solstice… <3

JJ Hertz & Francois Roy ｜ Celeste (Vincent Gericke Edit)

Free gift to the world from the land of the mystic step-pyramids <3

https://soundcloud.com/salguerx

Salguero - Echelon

Under the snow
Under the rotten leaves
Waits patiently 
The snow drop.
The birds don't make a sound...

Edit by @vincentgericke
Original by @bongbeck

Mastering by Robert Trifunovic @robydeep

Poem written on 04-02-2020 by Hekske, inspired by a haiku from Dakotsu Iida

Bongbeck - Winter Sleep (Vincent Gericke Edit)

This is the third episode of a true story of a school trip to a lost world… East Germany just before the wall came down… (episodes 1 and 2 in Witchtapes 46 and 47)

We were happy to leave the town Erfurt behind us, where my classmates and I had spent our very first night on the other side of the iron curtain.  For all of us Erfurt was an eerie ghost town with empty streets, covered in thick fog and the air was so polluted that some of my classmates even had trouble to breathe.  On top of that, the hotel was a shabby place with brown tap water and horrible food, including a murky substance which was supposed to be yoghurt (which I ate but most of my classmates went on a voluntary hunger strike, probably hoping things would get better the next few days).  Actually, we felt so uncomfortable in Erfurt that we all wanted to go back to Belgium.
It was a long and shaky bus ride from Erfurt to Dresden in the outermost south-eastern corner of the German Democratic Republic.  Actually, we rode on a very bumpy concrete highway which had been built by the Nazi regime in the 1930s and hadn’t seen much repairs in the next 50 years.  The mood of the schoolgirls was getting better while the sun started to shine.  And we were slowly getting used to the sight of all these primitive Trabant cars on the road.  But when entering the City of Dresden, something broke down in the front suspension of the bus (it turned out that it couldn’t be repaired in East Germany, which meant that a few days later the bus would crawl at a slow pace from Dresden to Berlin before finally getting the much-needed repairs in West-Berlin).  When entering Dresden, I was shocked to see that there were still some buildings in ruin and visibly blackened by the allied fire-bombing of 1945, which was already 42 years earlier.  
Luckily, after getting out of the bus it became immediately clear that this city was a surprisingly vibrant and pleasant place.  Up to that moment, we didn’t interact much with the locals.  We thought that was pretty normal in communist countries, where people from the West (even 17 year old schoolgirls) were regarded suspiciously and we thought it was more or less forbidden for the locals to talk with tourists from the West.  And we also believed that the population of all communist countries had been brainwashed with propaganda, so I couldn’t imagine that it was possible to have a pleasant conversation with the locals.
Luckily, in Dresden we quickly found out this was not the case.  To our great surprise, the local people were really nice and friendly towards us… and visibly warmer and more laid-back than the West-Germans.  Their mentality was even pretty similar to the Belgian style, so it was very easy to connect and we chatted (in our broken German) with lots of lovely and sweet teenage girls and boys, who were apparently very eager to get in touch with foreigners.  This made our stay in Dresden very pleasant and all the Belgian schoolgirls started to feel very much at ease.  The hotel was way better than the one back in Erfurt and although they also served the same peculiar substance named ‘yoghurt’, all my class mates finally got hungry again and spontaneously gave up their hunger strike.
The town of Dresden was really beautiful, at least the part of the historical center which had already been rebuilt… some old building were still being reconstructed while the most famous church (the Frauenkirche) was still a pile of rubble back then.  Actually, reconstruction of this church would only start after the reunification of Germany and fortunately this beautiful monument has now been fully restored in all its glory, symbolically completing the rise from the ashes of the beautiful and vibrant city of Dresden…

Mix self-produced by https://soundcloud.com/feinheitsbrei

Photo : Kunsthofpassage, Neustadt, Dresden
Photo credits : frantic00

Witchtape #63 | Guest Wizz : Feinheitsbrei

Witchtape #66 | Guest Wizz : Stelzenläufer

After a short but hectic flight, the little witch touched down in an unfamiliar forest.  A few minutes earlier, an owl – in a state of near-panic – flew to the witch’s forest and had begged her for help.  It turned out many animals of this nearby forest were very sick from a mystery illness and some animals had even died during the last few days.  To make things worse, every day this illness was infecting more and more animals at an increasing rate, making all forest dwellers desperate.  Luckily, an old owl knew there was a young witch in a nearby forest and that’s how she arrived here.  The girl immediately realized it was crucial to separate the healthy from the sick animals and isolate them in a remote corner of the woods.  And she understood this forest was located too close to the human world, which meant it was suffering from all kinds of pollution, including noise pollution, which caused stress to the animals and weakened their immune system.  So the little witch started to sing a sweet song, which cancelled out the noise pollution and brought all animals into a state of blissful hypnosis.  The soothing voice of the witch had an instant effect on the sick animals, and they all started to recover.  And the sweet presence of the girl also had a calming effect on the healthy animals and boosted their immune system, so that they didn’t fall ill.  The little witch also prepared a magic potion of spices and berries, and the vitamin-rich brew boosted their immune system even further.  And on top of that, she ordered all animals to get some sunlight every day and get enough sleep every night.  This made the animals quite a bit stronger.  Yet, this seemed to be a really vicious virus which meant complete rest was needed for full recovery.  The animals even had to continue resting for 5 days after the symptoms had gone, as this was a virus which took a long time to get completely out of their system.  During this time, the little witch continued singing with her sweet voice, accompanied by all the birds and eventually these sounds completely cancelled out all noise pollution and the whole forest seemed to calm down, finally – after over a century of turmoil - becoming once again an oasis of peace and quiet… And after all animals had been cured from the virus a few weeks later, they threw a big party which would last until well past midnight under a beautiful rising moon… 

Connect with the artist : 
https://soundcloud.com/stelzenlaeufermusic
https://soundcloud.com/faultierdisko

Photo credits : Ironika (Irina Alexandrovna)

Witchtape #66 | Guest Wizz : Stelzenläufer

"Die Wahrheit der heutigen Welt finden wir nicht im Aussen, sondern in unserem Innern."

'We do not find the truth of today's world outside, but deep inside'

Christina von Dreien

Original track by  https://soundcloud.com/stavroz
Edit by https://soundcloud.com/isaque-solaris
Artwork by https://soundcloud.com/brownsword

This edit is a free gift to the world.
You can find the original track (and buy link) here : https://soundcloud.com/stavroz/stavroz-kasambila-1

Stavroz - Kasambila (Isaque Solaris Edit)

‘Kawa-Kawa’
The last cry of the winter crow in the old year
Perched on the ice-covered buds of a birch twig

***

Free gift to the Universe, launched with love from planet Earth on the 13th of December 2020

Original track by Viqtourson
https://soundcloud.com/rolandsons-seasidetrip/viqtourson-last-breath

Edit by Vincent Gericke
https://soundcloud.com/vincentgericke

Mastered by Electronica Massiva
https://soundcloud.com/dare-2-b-different

***

Winter poem written by Hekske, loosely based on the ‘Kawa-Kawa’ haiku from Takahama Kyoshi (1874-1959)

かわかわと 
大きくゆるく 
寒鴉

Kawa kawa to
Ookiku yuruku
Samu-garasu

Vincent Gericke

Viqtourson - Last Breath (Vincent Gericke Edit)

That misty winter morning, the little witch woke up in a silent, frozen forest.  She really loves cold and quiet winter mornings like these.  With her eyes still half-open from a good night’s sleep, her heart suddenly skipped a beat from excitement when she realized the next night there would be a full moon, which meant she’ll participate in the monthly witch coven (which always happens in a different location and in the ever-changing company of two other witches).  
After finishing her daily inspection round of the ice-covered woods, the girl said goodbye to the forest dwellers, and flew into the unknown.  She knew she would – as always - reach her destination by simply following her inner compass.  
This time she was flying into South-Eastern direction for quite a long time, until she saw the Swiss Alps in the distance.  Last summer she already visited a pleasant meadow near a crystal-clear lake at the foot of these mountains, but this time her inner compass told her to keep on flying higher and higher.  The mountain peaks were hidden by thick clouds and she flew straight towards these.  She took a deep breath and dived into these thick clouds.  Flying conditions became very difficult as she had to navigate through a blizzard with zero visibility.  Her body became covered with snow while her hair had turned into an icy mess.  Flying was really unpleasant while she continued to climb higher and the temperatures dropped even further.  Luckily, after a while it stopped snowing and soon she rose above the clouds where the view was simply epic.  After her eyes got used to the blinding sunlight, she enjoyed a spellbinding view on the sun-lit mountain tops towering above the immaculately white clouds.  Suddenly she sensed she had reached her destination and gently touched down on a mountain pass, high above the tree line.  Her white dress was soaking wet, which was very uncomfortable, especially after it got stiff from the frost.  In the middle of these majestic mountains, she felt really tiny and reduced to her essence.  She started to shiver from the cold, feeling all alone and miles away from everywhere.  Like this, it wouldn’t take long before she would freeze to death, but the girl wasn’t worried.  She knew her inner compass always brings her to the right place at the right time.  The young witch looked in the distance and to her surprise she saw a big white bird in the distance flying straight towards her.  After a few seconds she realized this was clearly not a bird, although she couldn’t tell exactly what kind of creature it was.  In any case, it was  completely different from all the flying animals she had ever seen before.  Eventually it turned out to be a flying horse, carrying two witches.  Despite its huge size, the animal touched down gracefully and the two witches quicky ran towards their shivering visitor, asked if she was OK and quickly helped her out of her frozen dress.  The two witches had brought warm clothes and boots with them.  After an extended group hug and a cup of hot herbal tea, the little witch felt comfortably warm again.  The two Swiss witches invited their visitor to join them on a flight on the back of their flying horse.  Soon they were airborne and really enjoying the majestic landscape, while the nimble horse started to perform some aerial acrobatics.  The witches got so carried away that all three of them were soon cheering and yelling from joy, while the horse flew over the glaciers and mountain ridges with graceful wing movements… this vast snowscape disoriented the little witch to the extent she lost all sense of space and time, experience the past, present and future at the same moment… the start of a truly unforgettable witch coven high up in the Swiss Alps …

Connect with the witches : 
https://soundcloud.com/najesh_and_artisoko
https://soundcloud.com/najesh
https://soundcloud.com/artisoko

Photo Credits : Irina Alexandrovna (Ironika)

Witchtape #87 | Guest Witches : Najesh & Artišoko

That rainy winter morning, the little witch woke up in a wet and windy forest.  With her eyes still half-open from a good night’s sleep, her heart suddenly skipped a beat from excitement when she realized the next night there would be a full moon, which meant she’ll participate in the monthly witch coven (which always happens in a different location and in the ever-changing company of two other witches).
After finishing her daily inspection round of the muddy woods, the barefoot girl washed her feet in a little stream, said goodbye to the forest dwellers, and flew into the unknown.  She knew she would – as always - reach her destination by simply following her inner compass.  
This time she flew straight to the East and it was a really long flight.  Never before had she ventured this far eastwards.  After a couple of hours, the rainclouds dissipated and soon she was flying over a snow-covered winter landscape under a glorious blue sky.
While passing over a huge forest, she sensed she had reached her destination and gently touched down in a clearing.  To her great surprise, she wasn’t welcomed by two witches but instead of that, two female wolves were waiting for her.  After a long hug with both animals (hugging a fluffy wolf is particularly pleasant when it’s freezing cold), it appeared that warm clothes and boots were waiting for their guest, with exactly the same grey color as wolf fur.  After putting on the comfortable cape, the little witch felt a very special energy descending over her body … and she immediately knew this was pure wolf energy.  And to her amazement, all of a sudden she was capable of speaking wolf language fluently.  Then the two wolves took the little witch deeper into the woods.  It was an old forest named Puszcza Białowieska, one of the very rare primeval forests in Europe and most trees were already centuries old.  With the immaculately white snow carpet, the majestic trees looked like pillars of a natural cathedral.  Finally they reached the biggest tree the girl had ever seen of her whole life.  The wolves explained this oak tree was named ‘The Guardian of Zwierzyniec’ and its circumference was a staggering 658 cm.  The wolves led the girl to the other side of the tree, where she found an ancient book, lying on a carpet of moss and fern leaves.  The eldest wolf explained that this holy book used to belong to an old wise witch, who was sadly burned at the stake during the persecutions of the 16th century.  Luckily, the old woman saw her fate coming and managed to hand over the holy book to a pack of wolves, who protected it ferociously for over 50 generations.  And since a few years, on every full moon day one random witch is being invited to come and read this venerable book.  And on that snowy day it was the little witch’s turn to get the honour to discover this hidden treasure.  With cautious movements, the girl opened the ancient book and started reading.  On page 1 she found out that the writing of this book had commenced on the 1st day of February of the year 1202, which was that day exactly 819 years ago.  After that, the girl browsed further and deeper into the book and soon she was completely absorbed into this invaluable treasure trove of wholesome magic spells, but it also treated more mundane subjects like a recipe of horseradish stew, a dish which the little witch had so far failed to get right.  The witch was so immersed in the ancient book, that she kept on reading all night long (with the help of some floating lights which she created using a spell which came straight out of the book).  The next morning, the girl was full of new energy and insights, thanked the two female wolves with a (long and fluffy) goodbye hug and flew back westwards to her own forest, wiser and more accomplished than ever before …

Connect with the wizard : 
https://soundcloud.com/kapoormusic

Photo credits : Maria Moroz

Witchtape #88 | Guest Wizz : Kapoor

Witches are the guardians of the forests.  We're not evil or dark, just a bit shy.  And even surprisingly sweet and kind... as long as you respect the forest.

Art project of Hekske ('Little Witch' in my native Flemish language).
Founded on the 22nd of January 2017

Profile pic by @brownsword

Popular tracks by Hekske ❋ The Magic Witchtapes