The Fox and The Moon - Spells
Hi! Welcome to our weekly Fred & Dan newsletter: Why Aren’t You Famous Yet? This is a continuation of our blog series that takes you behind the scenes of our newest script: The Fox and The Moon. This week you’ll be hearing from both Fred & Dan and the spells we created for each of our main characters. First you’ll hear from Fred (Giovana) and her spell for Ix Chel, and then Dan (Janette) and her spell for Fox.
If you haven’t read our previous blogs on the script you can do so here!
A SPELL FOR IX CHEL written by Giovana
This spell was the actual inspiration for the screenplay. I read a book, Next Year In Havana by Chanel Cleeton, that made me cry so hard for a love lost and time forgotten. I couldn’t stop thinking about how the main characters meant the world to each other until their dying day, but to the world they were no one. Due to war their love was all in secret, lost forever upon their death beds. It made me wish for answers about life after; if peace comes, if you ever meet again, or if peace is simply the eternal clemency from pain.
That’s why I gave Ix Chel’s people the passage between the veil. Because what if life happened after? What if our short existence could simply be a prelude to the rest? An infancy of the soul?
This spell is one Ix Chel uses to connect with her highest self. If you’ve ever seen Avatar the Last Air Bender, think about it like Ang going into a meditative state to connect to himself and then sometimes connect to his past self. If you are familiar with religion, think of it as an opening prayer, or the sacrament of communion.
In this spell, you’ll see just how connected to the earth her people, the Zyanya are. They honor the moon, elements, and nature. Everything they are is cyclical. In this spell fire is the highest power because it is the source of life and death. Like the cycle of life, when Ix Chel speaks the words in this spell she is giving an offering of herself in exchange for the offering from the flame, it’s a symbiotic relationship in a way.
When she accesses her highest power she passes between life and death in this meditative state. It is just as fire can be the source of life and death at the same time. They become one in the same.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
I light this candle and give you my trust
That this flame burns bright
That it sets my soul alight.
Together as one
Separated by none
To know a naked truth, a heart's desire
That’s all you’ll find when you bathe by fire.
So blaze my path
Give my powers your wrath
As we work in unison
To meet as old friends soon again.
A SPELL FOR FOX written by Janette
I am not as rhythmically or poetically inclined as Gio, so writing this spell was definitely a test of patience with myself and overcoming self consciousness. But I decided I wanted to write something fun and witty, as Irish spells are known to be. There is actually a long history in Ireland of curses but I chose instead the “Irish elixir of potency.”
In thinking about the type of magic that this specific wizard coven casts, Gio and I decided we wanted them to use a type of “totem” (a wand or object used to channel magic) to differentiate the Tiernan clan from the Zyanya clan. Also so we could include jokes in the script like, “you use your wand to overcompensate” or “so you need a performance enhancer is that you’re saying?” lol.
My thinking is this is a spell and potion that Fox’s brothers passed down to him as a joke on their youngest baby brother. So here it goes:
In order to unlock the famed Irish Potency you must first gather the following ingredients:
Two ounces of cochineal, one ounce of gentian root, eight grams of saffron, four grams of snakeroot, four grams of salt of wormwood, and the rind of ten oranges. All of this should be steeped in a quart of brandy. While mixing the ingredients you must complete the following incantation:
If your Mickey doesn’t rise under the sheet
If it needs help getting to its feet,
Poitín can help you out well
To get you out of any dry spell.
These mixtures of roots and spices
Will help your potency with any vices.
Take well with brandy, with a slap from your most trusted
And run to who you wish to love before you are busted.