The Witching Hour

Just to clarify and make some admissions regarding my own silliness in regards to the recent 3:15 Experiment post, there is a very distinct reason I call the time at which participants will wake up "ungodly."  While it is rather early and a terrible time for one with nighttime pain, there is also the superstition factor.

The Witching Hour or Devil's Hour refers to, alternatively, 3 a.m. or 3:33 a.m., and is a Christian-based belief.  Essentially, the idea is that Christ died at the age of 33 at 3PM, so the opposite time, 3AM (or 3:33, factoring in his age) is seen as belonging to the devil, the time of day directly across from the Passion.  My basis for this fear, however, is pretty much just the scariness that was (and is...) The Exorcism of Emily Rose. 

I typed in a query online, and did get a Wikipedia response:

In European folklore, the witching hour is the time when supernatural creatures such as witches, demons and ghosts are thought to be at their most powerful, and black magic at its most effective. This hour is typically midnight, and the term may now be used to refer to 3am -6am, or any late hour, even without having the associated superstitious beliefs. The term "witching hour" can also refer to the period from midnight to 3am, while "devil's hour" refers to the time around 3am.

It is believed by some in England that the witching hour begins at 11 pm and runs through to midnight. This hour before midnight is also used for the practice of witchcraft.

Anyway, it can be scary enough being awake at night.  As one who does tend to believe in all things "supernatural" and has had hallucinations as a result of bad reactions to medications, I definitely do believe in the power of the dark.  Tonight, for example, there is a full moon, and I feel it hard not to be drawn in by its power.  It feels so likely to draw me out from the comfort of my room and into the middle of the road.  I want to go howl with the dogs.

Here is an old poem, in which I tried to explain the feeling, that is simultaneously horrifying and liberating:

Untitled 1

As I watch her plans fall through
I think of her and me and you
And how we’d stare at starry skies
And dream those lights were demon eyes
And hear those devil screams as song
And have ourselves a sing-a-long

We’d howl and pump our chests and spit
And, oh, your mother had a fit
On seeing you with tattered skirt
Muddied up with phlegmy dirt
I’ve never seen your face since then
And her and I diverge again.


In any case, I'm sure that watching too many horror movies has taken away the magic of the dark quite a bit.  I recently posted this video to my other blog, but it is high time that it be repeated:

Night Light - More free videos are here

Just something to think about- how, while the things or people we fear in the night can hide from us in its depths, we too can hide ourselves away.  I always love this short film, scary as it is.  Though I have seen another short film in which blindness is used to display the horror of being stalked.  Anyway, that was a silly tangeant.

Nonetheless, you now know some of why I am worried to wake up at 3:15 for a whole month.  I wish I could believe wholeheartedly in its magick, but the superstitions run deep.  I find myself wondering why it couldn't be 2:15, so that I can be safe in my dreams at 3.  But that, I suppose, is an even more ridiculous thought, for if something wicked is to attack, I'd be much better off awake than asleep.

So many strange things within the human mind.