This is a Metaphor

Musings: The Season of Freaky

• Mo Houston • Season 1 • Episode 9

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October has a way of shaking the dust off creativity. In this episode, Mo looks at how Halloween’s built-in weirdness gives people an excuse to show sides of themselves they usually keep hidden. It’s not about spells or candy — it’s about the rare moment when performance, play, and belonging overlap.

She traces that spark into the rest of the year, sharing small rituals that keep curiosity alive — Sunday-night cards, moon journaling, neighborhood costume swaps — the kind of repeatable moments that turn time into texture and help you craft a life that feels like your own.

Hit play, then tell us your favorite ritual or the tiny celebration you’ll start this week. If it lands, share it with a friend who loves a good theme, and leave a review so we can keep bringing a little make-believe to the everyday.




Instagram: @this.is.a.metaphor & @joyscout.mo

Email Mo: mo@joyscoutstudio.com

Cover Design by: Joyscout Studio // For commissioned art & design inquiries: Joyscout Studio

“Don’t get Deterred, get Inspired”

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my coming downstairs It's spooky season It is a season of spooky things It's a season of repressed creativity Don't be frightened Come on in It's the month that most people have been waiting all year long for Why?

SPEAKER_02:

Maybe because you get to be a little weird. Maybe it's because you get to celebrate the wickedness inside of you and um quite honestly in a in a culture that seems to condemn any of the shadows of your humanness. And it's just part of the story. It's all part of the grittiness of being human. And it's fun once a year to be wild and to have limitations on your creativity for 30 days that says, what theme are you gonna choose for your Halloween party, for your costume? How many parties are you going to? Are you celebrating? Are you excited? And I feel like of all of the years, the last five or so, I have seen so many decorations. And granted, that's that's Tampa, that's Clearwater, that's St. Pete, and it's it's just really celebrated here. And the last few years I've been spending a lot of time in Charleston around October and November. And Charleston, if you've not been to Charleston, my goodness, it's just yeah, I don't even want to say anymore because I just want to keep it like the best secret known to mankind. What a fucking beautiful place, just stunning in every direction and colorful and so much history and food. Oh my goodness, the food. The food makes you want to have more than one stomach so that you can adequately experience the tastiness that's coming at you from every right andor wrong turn. And it's the type of city that you can just make so many wrong turns and always end up somewhere beautiful. That being said, Halloween there is a lot of fun. I mean, neighborhoods just get up and at it, and it's usually wonderful weather, and you just stroll, and it doesn't matter what age you are, you are in fact trigger-treating. It's a lot of fun. And when someone tells me that their favorite holiday is Halloween, I've always kind of felt that that just means that they don't have a lot of avenues for their creative expression. And that's not always the case. I mean, it's a wonderful time of year, but a lot of the times it really, it really is because there's so many, I think, a longing for individuality. And I think that makes you I see that seed just being planted in this past year and and probably in many years to come where it's not just gonna be one month where you get to show how freaky you can be, how weird you can be, how how enthusiastic you can be to celebrate. Like people need a reason to celebrate. And man, like I mean, I grew up and it was like dorky to want to celebrate things, you know, like you just show your coolness and not be affected by an overwhelming amount of enthusiasm towards a lot of things, and and now it's like celebrating the humanity in Yuvet is in fact emphatic, really. Is that the word that I want? Let's look it up. Sorry, I'm not gonna edit that sound out because it's authentic. Emphatic emphatic showing or giving emphasis, expressing something forcibly and clearly. Well it's not not emphatic. Enthusiastic synonyms, please. I spelled it very wrong. Please correct me.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Eager, keen, avid, ardent, fervent, warm, passionate, zealous, excited, energetic, lively, energized, animated, vigorous, dynamic, vehement, fiery, exuberant, emulient, spirited, hearty, wholehearted, committed, willing. I'm not gonna stop. I'm having a lot of fun. I'll stop. But there does seem to be an expansion, and I'm I'm pretty sure social media outlets and avenues have really created what is very needed and people are hungry for, which is a sense of celebration, like something to celebrate. And like when it comes to a celebration, I don't know, I don't know if you know this, but there are a lot more fun when a lot of people are there that have the same amount of joy about what's being celebrated as you do. I mean, it was you know, it wasn't really fun being at the party when you know people don't want to be there. It's an it's not you don't want it to be a mandated party, you want it to be a collection of of like-heartedness. Is that a I'm gonna I get to make up words because I have an English degree and it was more expensive, I would say, than most English degrees. And that's all I'm gonna say about that. But that means that sometimes I make up words and I don't want to have to un make them. You know, that's the part of the creativity that I have invested in myself, and I'm I'm not, I mean, I'm probably just as creatively repressed as the next person, which is probably saying quite a bit, because it's probably like a percentage, you know. Doesn't matter how many things you do that are artful or creative and or unorthodox, it just means how much are you doing versus how much do you want to be doing or how much exists inside of you that you would like to see pulled out into the outside world. And because of social media and I think just the hunger for I mean, you can say content, but really the hunger to be seen, the more you want to be seen, the more originality I think is gonna be desired in the in the long run. And so you can always just recreate something that you've seen. But if you're hungry for what your style is, and I think that that is inevitable, the more that you begin to create, you're going to start distilling down to honestly just your truths. And when that happens, you're gonna want, you're gonna inevitably see not just like what you're made of, but what you want to make, you know, the world that you want to invite people into. And the hunger that exists for most of us, I think, when we are being consumers, as far as scrolling, consuming content, there is this deep desire, especially if you like what you're seeing, like especially if you have consciously chosen more of what you're seeing, or you really interact with what you're seeing so that you see more of it, so that you engage and you are fed more of the like. And so let's say you like, you know, watching people bake some cakes, and then they're like, what about the chef who's chopping up this piece of meat, you know? And and and it's like we all we all know how an algorithm works. But when it comes to creativity, if you really start getting into one thing that you like a lot and you want to see more of it, you're gonna see so many iterations of a person slicing and chopping meat and prepping meat, and there's so many personalities and identities of someone doing the same exact thing as the next person, but in a very different way, you know? Like, and that's that that's style, that's that's choice, and that's like that's the magic that comes to doing something that you feel expresses your curiosity. And curiosity is the beginning of of all of this. And I think when like September rolls around every year, and you know, in some years, it's been like July, I think, and people are just itching for pumpkin lattes, and and and and I'm the fucking way, I'm all for pumpkin everything. I accept that that's the basic part of me, and I celebrate it. I celebrate moments where I get to be a part of the collective, and I can maybe even gauge and see judgments that I might acquire because of it. Because as someone who deeply craves individuality, it's nice to choose moments of of being a bit of a sheep, being a sheep person. And I I like that like cliches exist for a reason, you know? Cliches exist for reasons because it speaks to a lot of people in a lot of different ways. And when it comes to the season of Halloween, I get so excited for that that that frenzy of of a curated mood, a curated mood of who even knows what. Like it could be so many things, it's just whatever you find to be a little bit strange or a lot of bit disturbing or really, really gross, or like really scary, or like slightly unnerving, or maybe even just really cute, or the beautiful parts of the the colors, and it's just whatever the whatever the fuck you want. It's your season to do that, and I'm not condemning that at all. But it's either the maybe what's happening in the world right now and in the country that I don't see as much Halloween this year, or that's you know, that's just the easy pendulum swing. And the other side of the pendulum I I think is that we're given so many more days of the year to celebrate now. And I'm gonna segue that into why I love astrology, because and the last few years occult happenings have just been so we're so hungry for it, we're so hungry for a bit of mysticism. And mysticism does not apply to astrology, but it is a meta science, and and it, I mean, it's not it's not a belief system. Let's get that out of the way. It is a tool, and it's it's a it's a way to apply a millennia of of of data and patterns over time and over celestial happenings and apply them in very experienced ways and sort of reflect and see the world through a certain type of lens. And everyone's birth chart looks different, you know, and it's really fucking cool. Um, it's really fucking cool. And I feel like what started with a couple of posts on Instagram about what a Leo likes to wear to bed, or what a Scorpio likes to wear to bed, or like what a Pisces likes to, you know, these little genres and glimpses of the zodiac created just ripples of different types of data points where people wanted to show up online and they're using astrology to just be like, this is how I experience these signs, or this is what this placement means to me. And it's it's fucking wild and it's wonderful, but also it's so many different iterations of what is a bunch of data points, really, and you're putting them together and it's quite beautiful. And on the same, on that same wavelength, I think so much witchcraft became kind of like totally acceptable to to be like, I'm I'm a fucking witch, bruh. What are you gonna do? And and to lean into tarot and to just be like, what if the card does mean something more than you think that it means? And and like I think it's fucking fascinating that really a five or six year stretch of time, like so much of these, these facets of of I think what was something that was mocked for a long time. Whether or not you personally have believed and subscribed in manners of the occult and and more spiritual things, like lately it's people are curious, like what's the what's the woo stuff that you do? What's your woo? It's a very personal thing. And I feel like it's really exciting because if we take astrology, not that astrology is woo, I'm just saying that the movement of all this, it's really it would be very silly to not involve astrology in the greater conversation. Every day is like a holiday when it comes to astrology. If you if you did it right and you were paying enough attention, like there is just something to be giddy about and or have perspective about and and to create a ritual about and and to to journal about or to talk to someone about to engage, and it's just such wonderful mechanism for connection and reflection, and we're so fucking hungry to connect and reflect, not just with people around us, but deeply with ourselves, and that is why you can you know you can group these these parts of the occult into this wonderful bouquet of of wildness, but it gives people a reason to create ritual in their life, and we've been so hungry for it because for a long time, especially I mean in my lifetime, you had three major holidays, and then the rest of the year it was just kind of like this slingshot happening that just like just plopped you around a whip flash moment between the new year and then the end of the year where everything feels as though it's fine and dandy, and then suddenly you're putting out pumpkins, and then you're doing a turkey, and then you're putting up a tree, and then suddenly you're hoping to set intentions for a new year, and and it all repeats again. And those are all I probably wouldn't change any of that, but to like it gives so much space to the rest of the year to be able to be like, what do I feel like is happening this month, and what does this month mean for me? And if I mean out fucking the stars for sure light up my life, they really do, and and the moon the moon like how is the moon not just a giant metaphor for being uh just a human with with a dark side and an illuminated side, and the parts of ourselves that we see clearly, and the parts that are you know we're blinded by, and then the ones that we can't see the truth through, and the parts that we can't see because it feels too scary to ever go there, you know, and and uh that's one of the the parts of I will say witchcraft that is so wonderfully enticing, which is sort of those cycles of the moon. Every like two weeks, you know, you're either getting energized by the reveal of this full moon, or you're just kind of maybe being more of the hermit and then coming down into this this mode of reflection and and maybe healing, or just you know, the new moon. It's it's like you're either planting seeds or you're resting. And there is a metaphor that you could work in every direction. Like it, you know, the new moon either means you're planting a seed or it means that something's coming to an end. Like it's like, and I think those are the qualities and the synonyms I think that confuse people from the outside when they don't when they don't know the language or they don't know the experience of participating, really. It's because they all require quite a bit of discernment. Like they require quite a bit of discernment, and a lot of people do not possess that at all. They very much need the prescription that says this is this and that is that, and anything other that requires you to deeply trust what you think is real and what you think is right and what you think is honest, that's scary because discernment requires you to be able to say that is for me and that is not, and just because it's for me does not mean it's gonna be for you. And that is, you know, as a metaphoring the fuck out of this, like that's that is art and that is creativity. Like my art is not always gonna be your idea of good, and what makes me smile on my wall is not necessarily gonna make you smile. It's it is very experience-driven, but there's a whole language that we can use to describe things, and we're all kind of using it together, and it gets scary when someone uses a word that we think is maybe bad in a way that for them is good and fun, but that doesn't mean that they're wrong, and it doesn't mean that they're abusing your language, that just means that they're speaking a language too, and that's what that means to them. And yeah, Halloween is just that time of year every year that people get to blur the lines between how they get to show up that that month or that weekend, or you know, what their house looks like, or what type of chaos they're allowing in their front yard, or or what type of party and who's gonna be invited, and and what's the theme, and what am I gonna be? Like, how do how would I how do I want to be this year? You know, I always go kind of gory. I love a little bit of gore for myself, and I think it's just because it's easy. Like, I don't like to complicate my costume. Like, I think I did that as a kid, and but as an adult, I just want the thing that's gonna be so wonderfully that's gonna push me to the top of cool, but take as little time as possible. And I think a lot of blood and and and makeup is a way to kind of do that. Like that to me is is easier in your telling a story, but to other people, you fucking they're out here sewing their costumes, they're making their costumes, they're creating illusions, they're they're you know, having robotics, they're blowing up balloons, like it's whatever it is, and I I adore it. It's like really a feeling that I feel like I've been trying to get back to a lot lately. Like setting up for Halloween or or you know, the the act of putting up decorations and the act of like getting ready to go to a Halloween party, I think, is everyone is doing their thing and everyone's getting a little bit outside of their comfort zone. And it reminds me of growing up in the theater so much because you're creating a world on this stage, and everyone is like, you know, they're in the hallways or in the classroom, and I'm I'm talking about my theater in my high school, and you were just showing up, you know, after the school day when the school was quiet and the halls were empty, and it was, you know, middle of October, and so it was just the the leaves were falling and and and the weather was kind of cool, and the door, then the hallway was open, and the auditorium doors are are open, and you can hear people practicing in the other room, but you're make making the stage, you're creating the set design, like you're gluing stuff together, you're paper macheting, you're trying to find out where the corset from last year's production was, you know, or wasn't in the regular wardrobe room, and you're just making things work and you're putting stuff together and you're gluing it and you're stapling it, and it doesn't matter because you've got to get it done. And you're about to tell a story, you're about to create a world of people for people to believe in, you know, and it's just a time of make-believe. And everybody is agreeing that we get to make-believe together, and it's like make-believing from the curb or the side of the road when I look at your yard or I look at your lawn, or it's a Friday night, a couple weeks before Halloween, and you come out of your house with a bed sheet on and two eye holes, and it's pretty adorable. And it's like I I love it, and I I just think that more and more we hopefully get to do those moments and invite people in to make-believe all throughout the year, and these mechanisms, these catalysts for that type of of existing. And a celebration is a it's a rich, it's ritual, and rituals happen through intention and repetition. It's cyclical, you know, it's this is this thing that comes back around. And however it comes back around for you to be able to do one more, one more iteration, one more interpretation of something that you enjoyed doing, whether it was, you know, dressing up for a holiday or a certain face of the moon a couple times of a year, or you know, laying tarot cards, you know, on Sunday evenings with a candle, like whatever, whatever it is, whatever the thing is, that just is a little bit fun, and and the meaning behind it is to believe in something greater and to even connect with someone, be it yourself or a friend, or a community, or I don't know, a spirit, whatever it is, and just um just do it, just do it. Just just show up for it, and I'm I'm I'm down and I I support you. And this is a really fun, fun time of year. And I'm so looking forward to having more holidays and celebrations within myself in hopefully the years to come that are outside of October. Um however, that is a wonderful segue into the next musings episode, which I've just now decided, which is gonna be about the month of October and what that actually means for me every year. So that will be next week.