Raw Orchid Tales

What is this preoccupation with wearing Black?

“Black: protection, magic, mystery, transformation, elegance.” Beautifully worded, and the most apt description I’ve come across. And let’s consider the spectrum of Black attire. The list is not drab, it’s extensive. There’s subtle black, sparkly black, shiny black, skin-tight black, flowing black, formal black, casual black, wooly black, sleek black, elegant black, and downright comfortable black. The list could go on, and on and on. This is just to name a few...

If you are another one, whose daily uniform is Black, then you will relate. And I confess, as the years have rolled by, my wardrobe has evolved into a stricter and stricter alignment of Black, in all its glory. I’d possibly experience paralysing colour-shock, to suddenly face the world in any other hue. I won’t be seen in a high-vibing crisp white tshirt, anytime soon. Why is this so? Maybe because it expresses a daily routine of ‘coming out as a witch’, or allows me to move about in life as a sort of ‘floating shadow’. Discreetly, elegantly, and nebulously. Dressed to face any prospective situation or environment, and feeling protected, empowered, and ready. There is a classic timelessness to wearing Black, too. An ageless, almost spiritual, feeling to wearing it. Like those exquisite Japanese Zen monks, you can almost silently tread amidst the goings on of society. It becomes ‘the Way’, the mood, the Look. It’s timeless...

Speaking of timeless. It’s an important concept to accept, practice, and master in life. What does it mean to be timeless? To feel connected to your essence of spirit, so innately? Like the movement and unfolding, and whole mystery of a cloud? It’s to relate to the totality of oneself, I suppose. To have the capacity to summon the vulnerability and innocence of one’s inner child, and reach effortlessly for the ancient-like sage wisdom of one’s knowing, instinct and experience. It’s to coexist with the breadth of yourself. To find peace with it, to respect it, value it, treasure it, own it, and nurture it. It’s to honour and recognise the essential components of oneself. The totality of yourself, that prevails and continues to unfold, and repeat, and reinvent.

I guess what I’m trying to share with you, is that some things have a classical nature. A depth. An element of archetypal nature. An innate spirit. So on my daily travels, both big and small, and in the continuance of it all, for now. I wear Black. And, wearing Black and owning myself in a timeless way, has proven to be my preferred ‘way’. A pathway. And for all the mystique or anonymity it has brought, there is still a comfortable sense of ‘uniqueness’. And for that, I’m grateful....