Love From Lily

Weighing in with Coco Buck.

Coco Buck of Worn Journal asked me to weigh in on the controversial Steven Klein shoot of Madonna for the March 2009 issue of W magazine. Read my comments and others here!

 

Rabbit Foot Goddess

Coming from a family of strong Irish & Norwegian heritage, I'm no stranger to superstition. Throw salt over your shoulder if you spill. Don’t step on cracks. Don’t crawl under ladders. My great grandmother's house was a shrine to Jesus. Not the happy Jesus you see in children’s illustrations. No. The morbid, bloody, Jesus who paid for our sins. It was apparent to me that the more crosses you had on the wall, the more protected you were. I figured this was why great grandma lived so long. Good protection. Needless to say, I was impressed and started my own collection of crosses and rosaries—sometimes donning several before I hit the sack—to ward off bad dreams and bring luck.

In a strange twist of fate, around the age of eight I got my hands on a copy of The Exorcist. Actually, I found the book in the ditch on the way home from the bus stop. Surely, this was a sign from God that I was supposed to read this book! I had previously mentioned my interest in the book to my mother during one of our weekly library visits—and even though I was not discouraged from reading any book I was interested in, my mother had said it was “probably too old” for me and would give me nightmares. Hrmph! I read it under the covers with a flashlight—peeling the translucent, damp, pages apart—one by one—pretty much scaring the living crap out of myself. My imagination had conjured up plenty of horrible imagery well before seeing the movie. Of course, I couldn’t say anything to anyone because I knew I shouldn’t be reading stuff like that. So I doubled up on crosses and said extra prayers and left the bathroom light on for months.

Such are the roots of my fascination with religious artifacts, iconography and talismans—as well as death and the apocalypse—but that is another story entirely.

In spite of my childhood collection of crosses and other types of 'lucky' ephemera, I didn’t draw many religious conclusions to my good luck charms. I had many lucky rocks, found metal bits and other such tokens in my protective arsenal.If it was lucky to the Indians or Hindus, it was lucky to me. So, I guess it’s no surprise that as a teenager, I started wearing a rabbit’s foot attached via a ball chain to one of my belt loops. It was one of those silly things kids do. I had several in different colors, which I would wear depending on my mood or outfit. Oddly enough, it didn’t seem to bother me that a rabbit had to die for my fashion and good luck needs! Or that the practice was rooted in voodoo and I was completely against animal sacrifice.

My fascination with talismans of every kind continues to this day. I’m really excited about working with some found vintage pieces that I think will lend themselves to wonderful pieces of power and protection! Here’s a sneak peak at what’s coming to the work bench: