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No one likes to go home after a vacation, certainly not one as exciting and entertaining as the Midwinter Masque weekend promises to be.  You’ve reserved your hotel room, you’ve bought your tokens (every event), now what?

Why not maximize your stay and make the most of your time in the Washington, D.C. area?  The capital city, itself, has more than enough to fill a lifetime’s worth of weekend jaunts, but Northern Virginia has its share of interesting places to visit while you’re here in January.

A few items of note, to pique your interest:

• Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Located in Chantilly, VA (approximately 20 minutes from the Hyatt Regency Fairfax), this museum is the “little sister” to the original Air & Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington.  In this treasure trove of aviation history, you can see everything from the Concorde, to the Enola Gay, to the Space Shuttle.
• Reston Town Center Pavilion Ice Rink. Located approximately 15 minutes from the Hyatt Regency Fairfax, enjoy outdoor ice skating and then take advantage of post-holiday deals at the shops of the town center.
• Mount Vernon. If you’re interested in American history, what better place to visit than George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon?  Through the first week of January, the estate is decked out in Christmas finery and guests can enjoy candlelit tours after dark.  The estate is located in Mt. Vernon, VA, approximately 30 minutes from the Hyatt Regency Fairfax.
• Workhouse Arts Center. The former Lorton Correctional Facility now houses more than 100 working artists. Purchase one of a kind items, take a class, or enjoy one of the many special events that dot the center’s ever-full calendar.

Looking for additional activities or places of interest?  Check out the Visit Fairfax website for more ideas, special events, and monthly calendars.

 

“Gentian House first drew me in through its imagery of mysticism. Simultaneously promising knowledge of ourselves and experience of the unknown spoke to me.” ~ Erini nó Gentian, Dowayne

Gentian brings together the spiritual and the sensual, the divine and the erotic in a way that we don’t often experience. I believe eroticism has the ability to engage parts of ourselves we have lost touch with, allowing for new self-knowledge and, hopefully, reconciliation.  We see this in the books when Phédre seeks resolution of her dreams at Gentian.

In honor of this year’s Longest Night Midwinter Masque, Gentian House is pleased to offer you the opportunity to purchase a personalized birth chart based on the western zodiac.  Birth charts go beyond a typical newspaper horoscope and delve into elements such as values, potential, and desires, and include the influences of planets and luminaries on your life.  Each birth chart bears the Gentian symbol and is completely unique to each person.  The charts are hand drawn by our very own astrologer, the Dowayne of Gentian in pen and ink on high quality, heavy vellum parchment and measure 11” x 17”.

Along with the hand drawn birth chart, you may also order one of two options for interpretation.  While the birth chart will display the positions of constellations, planets, and houses*, and call out significant placements such as sun sign, moon sign, and rising sign, the interpretations takes this further.  The first interpretation focuses on the day of your birth.  This option will discuss the relationships between planets, constellations, and luminaries, and give an overview of what they mean for you.  The second interpretation is a deeper exploration of the way these energies manifest in your life through their house position at the time of your birth.  This interpretation is a story of your birth as told by the heavens.

Star charts can show the energies at work at any given moment, and charts can be created for a wedding, graduation, or other landmark event.  If you choose to have a chart made for an event that is not a birth, please indicate so on your order.

These can also make a unique gift for birthday, anniversary, or other special occasion.  All proceeds go directly to the Masque, so this is a wonderful way to support the event.

Please include the following information when you place your order:

• Date of birth
• Time of birth
• Place of birth

If you are ordering a chart for an event other than a birth, please specify this in your order to ensure accurate interpretation.

Pricing is as follows:

• Personalized Birth Chart (no interpretation): $50.00
• Personalized Birth Chart with Basic Interpretation: $65.00
• Personalized Birth Chart with Full Interpretation: $75.00

Please email the Dowayne at gentian@thelongestnightmasque.com with your information to place your order.  The Dowayne will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have, as well as provide you with a sample chart.

Each House of the Court of Night Blooming Flowers derives its canon from an interpretation of Naamah’s experience with the King of Persis, whom she lay with to secure Blessed Elua’s freedom.  House Alyssum believes that she trembled to lay aside her modesty.  From this, Alyssum takes modesty as its canon, something very different from the other twelve Houses.  How does modesty play into the act of love?  Is modesty a bad thing?

We are told that patrons who enter Alyssum whisper their desires to the Second and are led to a room of adepts from which they may choose for their assignation.  When Imriel and Mavros visit House Alyssum on their quest to experience every House in the Night Court in Kushiel’s Justice, Imriel chooses an adept and she whispers to him all of her desires.

In Terre d’Ange, sexuality in all its myriad forms is not only accepted openly, but celebrated.  The religion of the d’Angelines is based on the precept of loving who and how one chooses.  Our world does not share these same ideals.  Sex and sexuality are complicated, often controversial matters in our society.  So we close our doors and pull our curtains as we seek to “love as thou wilt.”

And while we would seek to live in a society where love and pleasure in every form and act were celebrated, this does not mean we should reject the beauty and allure of Alyssum’s modesty.

Modesty can often come with one’s first sexual experience: two people, fumbling in the dark, embarrassed by their lack of knowledge.  A person who will only undress with the lights off, ashamed of and fearing the rejection of their physical self.  With time and experience, that modesty can be the doorway to bolder, more adventurous and open sexual experiences.  With trust and love, fear can give way to confidence and self-acceptance.  But not everyone chooses to give up their modesty.  Some prefer to keep the lights off, sharing their desires and physical selves quietly and secretly with only their partner in the privacy of the bedroom.

The lack of open, flaunted sexuality and lovemaking can create a special bond between two lovers – different from the loyalty of House Heliotrope – revealing one’s intimate desires and physical self indicates trust.  You are trusting your partner to accept you in whatever manner you desire, be it tender or sharp; you are safe with this person.  In the darkness, behind our closed doors and drawn curtains, we can reveal our secrets to someone we trust.  Lit only by the afterglow of our lovemaking, we are able to share our true selves.  The trust and sharing between two lovers is truly sacred.

Are you a painter or sculptor worthy of Eglantine house? A chef or baker fit for a Palace feast? Perhaps you’re known for your detailed drawings, intricate needlework, or papier-mâché.

Whatever your medium, we invite you submit your original Kushiel’s Legacy and Naamah themed artwork for display on the Longest Night Midwinter Masque website.

Please email a high resolution digital image of your artwork to info@thelongestnightmasque.com with the subject “Fan Art Submission” and your name. Please include the title, the medium used, and any other information you would like referenced.  We will publish all works with a watermark of the artist’s name.

We look forward to seeing all of your creative endeavors and sharing them with the community.  If you have any questions please, as always, direct them to info@thelongestnightmasque.com

A note on tattoos/marques: We will be looking for photos of your Kushiel’s Legacy tattoos and marques later in the summer.  If you are a professional tattoo artist, we welcome your original designs at this time, but we encourage those who have made their marques (or are in the process!) to save that artwork for later.

Please note that you may only submit your own original artwork.

 

ALSO

We are happy to announce that Taylor Gallagher has won a free copy of Jacqueline Carey’s newest book, Starless!  Congratulations, Taylor!

From the Dowayne of Jasmine House

On this day, the longest day of the year, I begin my count down in earnest looking forward to the Longest Night Masque. As part of Jasmine House, it is all too easy to simply say, “for pleasures sake.” It speaks for itself because nothing is more sensual then pure pleasure. But pleasure is never “simply” for itself – it is a way to express ourselves, to announce ourselves, and in our way, to reveal ourselves to another person in the most intimate way possible. In that intimacy, we discover that the greatest pleasure of all is to give pleasure to another person. That is where true sensuality exists: in giving pure pleasure.

Lilliane nó Scalzi

From the Second of Jasmine House

Jasmine House and what it means to me is a vast and complex subject. It started off as a few hours on an online forum and evolved into a family that spans thousands of miles, with our loves, our disagreements, our successes and our tragedies.

The motto of Jasmine House, for pleasures sake, encompasses many different paths and passions. For me it comes down to one message: do what you love, because you love it, and to hell with everyone else.

Jasmine House is a home to those who feel they don’t quite fit in the other houses or who feel that several of the houses would suit them, those who don’t quite know which path calls the strongest. In Jasmine House every path to pleasure is accepted.

I count every day that I’ve known my Jasmine Sisters and Brothers as a blessing. They have touched my life and my heart more than I have ever been able to tell them.

Jadeh nó Jasmine

Gender, a term that originates from the same source as genre and genesis, is a wholly imagined construct. Protagoras, a pre-Socratic Sophist, is credited by Aristotle to have created the use of grammatical genders seen in romance languages. In the last fifty years, gender as a social construct has been explored in social sciences, drawing distinction from biological sex and even rejecting the notion of feminine and masculine as genders on either end of a spectrum.

Many cultures all over the world acknowledge Third Genders, like India’s hijras or the Native American muxe.  Although awareness of non-binary, gender neutral, and non-gendered identities grow in western countries, those outside traditional male/female gender roles are continually faced with discrimination, intolerance, and hatred.

As an inclusive community, the Longest Night Midwinter Masque honors Preferred Gender Pronouns (or PGP’s). With Pride Month in full swing, supporting gender pronoun conduct is a powerfully effective way to be an ally.

These pronouns continue to develop and information on them is slowly gaining traction, so we understand if these concepts are new to you. The following resources are a great way to learn more:

https://uwm.edu/lgbtrc/support/gender-pronouns/

https://lgbtqia.ucdavis.edu/educated/pronouns.html

The Gender Reveal Podcast http://gender.libsyn.com/

Happy Pride Month to all and Love as thou Wilt!

From the Dowayne, Rosanna Baphinol nό Valerian:

 Were I to compile all that speaks to me of Valerian House, I could easily say this quote from Kushiel’s Dart would do nicely: “That which yields is not always weak.”  

Of the thirteen houses of the Court of Night Blooming Flowers only two deal with pain, and as one of those who finds pain to be a kind of pleasure I am often confronted with misunderstanding. It is through the acceptance of such sharper delights that I find a certain sort of peace, just as Phédre does – with the right patrons. The adepts of Valerian House not only take pride in what they do, but they also challenge themselves with their art. That challenge manifests, for me, in the pushing of my own personal boundaries, in many aspects of life, from which I return stronger each time.

When I contemplate the motto, “I Yield,” I know that it is done with the knowledge that I am the one who gives it. At any moment the signalé can be used, and the power of the situation is truly revealed. To yield is a choice. Such devotion is a gift, allowing me the full control of whatever or whoever I deign to submit to. Valerians are delicate flowers with spines of iron. Let not the surface appearance dictate just how strong a person can be, you might be surprised what is hiding underneath.   

 

From the Second, Tryphosa Katseros nό Valerian:

“Love is hard, harder than steel and thrice as cruel. It is as inexorable as the tides, and life and death alike follow in its wake.” ~Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel’s Chosen

This quote more than anything embodies for me why Valerian is so important to me. While not about Valerian itself it speaks to the dichotomy of how we who belong to Valerian live. While seemingly soft and demure we revel in being challenged and brought to the edge and beyond of what we can stand. We love our patrons for the pain and cruelty they inflict on us and that love at times can be very hard, but in the end is worth it.

Another core of Valerian is trust. Without a solid core of trust there can be no yielding and without yielding those of Valerian do not achieve what we crave. Through the trust that is required I have learned much of myself and the many different aspects that make me who I am. The ability to give up all control and trust someone else so completely has shaped me into the person that I am. And this is a lesson that came hard and over a long period of time. I am thankful for the values of Valerian and how I can continually learn from them as I grow, yield, and trust in love.

In Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Legacy and Naamah trilogies, it is explicitly stated, over and over, that any sexual or physical interaction without consent is heresy. Because all that Naamah did for Elua was done consensually, the courtesans of the Night Court and their patrons consider consent a holy part of their ideology. On their many travels, our heroes and heroines struggle with how cultural norms differ from the Precept of Elua that d’Angelines hold sacrosanct. This important theme is one of the major reasons these trilogies remain powerfully relevant today and will remain so for decades to come.  

What is consent culture? As a rebuttal to rape culture, consent culture is the normalization of consent and communication. We support the consent culture of Terre d’Ange and the international movement to normalize consent and communication in our present world.  

We believe rape and sexual assault victims/survivors should be believed and supported, not blamed or ignored. We believe every single person has the right to their bodily autonomy, which includes the right to not be hugged, tickled, or touched in any way without enthusiastic consent. We believe consent is not merely the absence of “no.” We believe that consent is unambiguous and free of coercion. We believe in vigorous self-education on unlearning rape culture and creating consent culture. We believe in consent advocacy.  

There are thousands of website, blogs, podcasts and books regarding consent culture. Here are a few jump starters for continued education: 

https://www.creatingconsentculture.com/ 

http://veganwarriorprincessesattack.com/?s=consent 

Ask: Building Consent Culture, edited by Kitty Stryker 

We Believe You: Survivors of Campus Sexual Assault Speak Out, by Annie E. Clark and Andrea L. Pino 

Yes Means Yes!: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape, by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti 

I Never Called It Rape: The Ms. Report on Recognizing, Fighting, and Surviving Date and Acquaintance Rape, by Robin Warshaw 

I Have the Right To: A High School Survivor’s Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope, by Chessy Prout 

The Hunting Ground: The Inside Story of Sexual Assault on American College Campuses, by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering 

Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture-and What We Can Do about It, by Kate Harding 

Exit, Pursued by a Bear, by E.K. Johnston 

And, of course, Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Legacy and Naamah trilogies.