Open Sorcery

Open Sorcery is the world of Lazarus Halliwell.

Excellence and batshittery, done on purpose.

I’m Lazarus. I make art, music, poems, plays, and magic for the quiet, brilliant, broken ones. If that is you, welcome home. I adopt your kind.

[Subscribe to my email list and I’ll send you a track I don’t remember recording.]

More about me here.

Please note that, with rare exceptions, any and all names mentioned in this blog are pseudonyms except our own. We want to be able to speak freely without doxxing anyone.

Blog

  • I think I’m going to turn in early tonight, y’all,

    (for me, anyway).

    I’m processing a lot and my brain feels so overtaxed that it’s a struggle to think or even breathe at times. I’ve been struggling to even message Juneau, and that’s been quite easy of late. I think I’ve overworked myself into a hole.

    So I’m going to have a leisurely smoke and then I think I’m going to attempt sleep.

    G’night, y’all.

    If y’all want to help me feel less overtaxed, please check out my Patreon. It would be a huge help. 💛

    -Allēna

  • I think I hit my social limit today.

    Between a bunch of phone calls and DMs and getting sunsick this past weekend, including yet another phone call to get my benefits sorted because my representative has been AWOL for over a month now, I sort of went into turtly hermit mode and watched Smosh for most of the afternoon. It was nice.

    -Allēna

  • I feel like death,

    But I got a lot of shit done today. Soooo many videos and other stuff. I also crashed for several hours and it’s 3 AM. Now I am awake and idfk what to do.

    -Allēna

  • Tomorrow, the day after 4/20, the high where I live is supposed to be 69° Fahrenheit.

    Nice.

    -Allēna

  • I had this odd realization during my post-writers group smoke break today.

    I think I – as well as my system as a whole – approach making art the same way that jazz musicians play music. I was thinking about this because the piece I ended up writing today in group pulled heavily from “My Island” and yet putting an entirely different spin on it, and it got me thinking about all of the different times that I’ve done that while making music especially.

    And honestly, if I had to sum up my approach to just about everything in life, I would say that I approach most of my crafts like a jazz musician even though I don’t technically play jazz. I don’t believe in just one final product or making a recording or a piece the be all, end all. A single song can inspire me for over ten years and I’ll keep coming back to it lyrically, musically, poetically, even, in a sort of self-referential game of call and response, making something new with each iteration and reexamination.

    In the process, I’m building a recursive universe the longer I make content and art.

    I fucking love jazz.

    -Allēna

  • The things I do for content..

    Today, that was getting sunsick. Emerson and I went to a bookshop downtown after our original plans fell through, and I got…kind of irradiated making a video while I was waiting for him to finish up inside.

    I have to be awake at 10 AM tomorrow for writer’s group and I did not nap today like a fool.

    Pray for me, if you’re into that. If you’re not, send me good energy, I guess.

    I need to shut my eyes now. I am so, so tired..

    -Allēna

  • The people have found our Patreon.

    I can’t say that I’m exactly surprised at the results, as Eight set up an After Dark tier years ago and people have been clamoring for me to…reveal more of myself, as it were, for some time now, ever since I released the first round of videos teasing “Apocalypse You”.

    So if more… midnight revelations are your thing, head over to our Patreon and check it out. 😘

    -Allēna

  • Since I am a tired dumbass and it doesn’t seem to be my day with the braincell,

    here is a second post to tell y’all that you should subscribe to Open Sorcery if you enjoy what we have to say since I didn’t add it in the last post and I STILL can’t figure out how to edit the site so that it’ll let me edit posts directly from WordPress after I’ve posted them without completely breaking everything again.

    So, if you’ve been creeping for awhile and you enjoy this website, please subscribe. Huzzah!

    We’ve also been thoroughly WebFingered, so if the Fediverse is more your speed, follow us wherever the hell makes your little heart palpitate. 💛

    Ashley Halliwell
    Ashley Halliwell
    @opensorceryy@opensorceryy.co
    899 posts
    0 followers

    Now, I’m going to hopefully stop procrastinating and haul my extremely fatigued body into the fucking wet box now that it’s almost 2 AM. It’s shower time.

    Goodnight, all.

    -Allēna

  • I finally figured out how to get pages on this site back to where I need them to be.

    I apologize for any inconvenience if y’all were trying to read Lavender and Scissors or access any of the other pages on this site. I fucked them up a few nights ago and have been trying to resolve the issue pretty much nightly since.

    Yay, I love learning new things on the fly!

    In other news, we’ve been under a flood watch and portions of Milwaukee are underwater. I keep seeing posts about basements getting flooded and restaurants needing to close down. We’re in for more storms later today, which is just horrible considering all of the water that’s already been dumped on us. I’m worried about all of my local friends and followers.

    If you live in the city or you’re being affected by flooding elsewhere, could you please let me know that you’re safe somehow, either in the comments of this post or via a direct message on one of my social platforms?

    -Allēna

  • apocalypse whenever the HELL you want (because why ever not???)

    It is with great pleasure, pomp, and circumstance that I announce the release of “Apocalypse You” on our Patreon page. Paid subscribers to our Patreon can grab a copy at their leisure 💛

    Juneau, this one’s for you.

    -Allēna

    If you enjoy our work, go ahead and subscribe to Open Sorcery while you’re at it!