Double, Double Toil and Trouble Oct 2026: Fall TV Watchlist, The Count of Monte Cristo Fall Reading Curriculum, Revenge Movies, A New Portal....
Hi babblers! Happy SpookTober! Finally it is our time!! Spooky, creepy, witchy babblers RISE!!!!!!!!
I hope you had a great September, I was so busy constantly on the road traveling, or working, or getting back into school! School has got me swamped but I am dedicated to making it all happen <3 Which is why I’m planning on NOT DOING ANYTHING in October. Just work, school, and babbling. Plus I will sneak in some fall binge watching and of course my annual Twilight marathon will be coming up soon 🙂
Make sure this month you double check you’re registered to vote, have several fall themed treats, and also take care of yourself. There is so much going on and I’m never one to shy away from making it all known, but also make sure you’re taking care of yourself. We need you <3 I hope you enjoy this newsletter lots of good bits, some interesting tarot messages, my still reeling thoughts on Beloved, & more!
Don’t forget to like, comment, & subscribe! Also follow the babblings insta ->
*play me*
🔮 October Energy Reading 🔮
OVERALL ENERGY: The Bardo – Read the card summary below. I thought what great sychronicities that the card of the in between, liminal spaces, and messages from the other side comes out during the October reading where we’ll have Samhain and a time in general where the veil is so thin.
TO RELEASE: The Hierophant – You may have some outdated ways of thinking or living that need to be let go. Maybe you’re stuck thinking you need to stay committed to a traditional path, when really following your heart would bring you greater fulfillment and closer to the path of your life purpose. This could relate to traditional careers paths, education systems, or even a traditional relationship dynamic that isn’t working. This could also be about a routine that needs shaken up. The Hierophant is the 3D counterpart to the High Priestess, so this can also be especially with the overall energy, a need to release reliance on traditional knowledge and tap into your intuition. Or shift your attention away from the 3D for a moment and focus on deepening your spiritual practices.
TO EMBRACE: The Queen of Cups – Embrace your heart center, your emotions, your creativity, your intuition. A very intuitive queen is the queen of cups. She is compassionate and nurturing to others, but always she is to focused on her own cup. Tap into your emotions, express them, and make space for others to do so in return. Deepen your psychic practices and listen to your heart.
TO LOOK FORWARD TO: The Ten of Wands – This is a difficult card. It suggest being over burdened or weighed down by life, other people, commitments, or expectations. But because it’s a 10 it’s also means something is completed, you can look forward to burdens being laid aside and your emotional or literal work load being lightened.
SPIRIT GUIDE: The Moonstone – This stone is known to bring you peace and calmness. It’s also a stone great for heightening psychic abilities and nurturing love. Maybe find a moonstone, take one with you that you already have as you journey through the world, or just look for moments of peace, intuitive insights, or of comfort to remind you this energy is supporting you in your endeavors.
SUMMARY: With the bardo as the general energy, to me all of these cards are pointing to a deeper message of going within and opening our minds and hearts to insight from beyond the veil. This month the veil will be thin and our guides are asking us to release societal expectations or traditional paths or knowledge, to focus instead on the knowledge within, expose the emotions we’ve been holding while venus is in retrograde, and quiet our minds so we may here their guidance. This month is a portal, an in between, where we can release the constraints of an old life and gain wisdom on where we should be heading next.
🌛 Movie(s) of the Month 🌛
{revenge}
Libra & Scorpio
Blue Ruin (2013) & Mulholland Drive (2001)
We’re kicking off spooky season by looking at REVENGE movies!!! When thinking about Libra and Scorpio the first commonality that stood out to me was their sense of justice. Libra represented by the scales in imagery and the Justice card in tarot, is all about balance and righting wrongs. Scorpio represented by the Death card in tarot, has no problem ending toxic cycles or cutting people out of their lives that they felt have wronged them. Ruled by Mars, Scorpio isn’t afraid to wage war or confront their enemies. Libra, ruled by Taurus, has a softer approach looking to be the peacemaker. But when justice cannot be served, in their shadow aspects both signs may take matters into their own hands. Forfeiting justice for revenge.
In Blue Ruin, the main character Macon, returns to his hometown to seek revenge and his form of justice for the death of his parents. David Lynch’s classic Mulholland Drive is a mystery, psychological thriller, where we watch two women unravel what happened to one of them after they have amnesia from a car crash. Betrayal, vengeance, and jealously unfolds against a dreamy Hollywood backdrop.
I’m going to be better about putting my movie thoughts in the comments! I’d love to hear yours there too!
🌸 reading club! 🌸
Beloved Review & Fall Curriculum Intro!
“This here Sethe talked about love like any other woman; talked about baby clothes like any other woman, but what she meant could cleave the bone. This here Sethe talked about safety with a handsaw. This here new Sethe didn’t know where the world stopped and she began. Suddenly he saw what Stamp Paid wanted him to see: more important than what Sethe had done was what she claimed. It scared him.”
pg. 193
Gut wrenching. Beautiful. Harrowing. I’m kind of at a loss for words when it comes to Beloved. I don’t know if this books gets talked about enough as a gothic horror. The backdrop and history of slavery is the truest American gothic horror, haunting the entire narrative just as much as Beloved the character. Morrison writes so seamlessly you move in and out of the past and present in a way that’s disorienting but not all at the same time. As if you are a person with severe PTSD living day to day in and out of flashbacks and trauma that will never leave you. Sethe’s actions a manifestation of physical and psychological terror, the links of generational trauma, and hope and love in spite of it all is deeply moving. Morrison writes so atmospheric and immersive, you are there with the characters feeling the grass under your feet or walking through 124.
In connection with our sex and power curriculum, I wanted to look at how sex was used as dominance. Through several of the characters experiences we see how it was used against them systemically to break them down. But also for healing and connection. Beloved illustrates how complicated sex is, the damage sexual violence does to the psyche, and how that pain moves through generations.
I have so much to say, I don’t even know where to begin to be honest. I’m thinking about recoding my thoughts in podcast format, let me know if you’d be interested. Overall, 5 stars, READ THIS BOOK.
🍂 Fall Curriculum (Oct-Dec) 🍂
The Count of Monte Cristo & The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
October
book summary
Here is the remarkable true story of the real Count of Monte Cristo – a stunning feat of historical sleuthing that brings to life the forgotten hero who inspired such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.
The real-life protagonist of The Black Count, General Alex Dumas, is a man almost unknown today yet with a story that is strikingly familiar, because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used it to create some of the best loved heroes of literature.
Yet, hidden behind these swashbuckling adventures was an even more incredible secret: the real hero was the son of a black slave — who rose higher in the white world than any man of his race would before our own time. Born in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), Alex Dumas was briefly sold into bondage but made his way to Paris where he was schooled as a sword-fighting member of the French aristocracy. Enlisting as a private, he rose to command armies at the height of the Revolution in an audacious campaign across Europe and the Middle East – until he met an implacable enemy he could not defeat.
The Black Count is simultaneously a riveting adventure story, a lushly textured evocation of 18th-century France, and a window into the modern world’s first multi-racial society. But it is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of love between a father and son.
-goodreads
November & December
book summary
Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and becomes determined not only to escape but to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. A huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s, Dumas was inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment when writing his epic tale of suffering and retribution.
-goodreads
I’m so excited to get into our Fall reading curriculum! The Count of Monte Cristo has been on my TBR for a while, but it is huge and intimidating even for me (I’m a tried and true 800+ page high fantasy girlie). So what we’ll do is first read The Black Count, which is a non-fiction book by Tom Reiss, telling the story of the real Count of Monte Cristo. This will give us background on who he was, his life as the son of a slave rising the ranks, information on the French revolution, and Napoleon. This will help orient us into the world of the count before embarking on the classic by Alexandre Dumas. Since it’s so long and this is a busy, holiday season, (and because there’s other things outside of the curriculum that I want to read & I’m sure you do too) we’ll split Monte Cristo up and read the first half in November and the second in December. Hopefully this curriculum allows us to not only check a classic off our list, but also deeply engage with the text, have a better understanding of the time, and why the story is so important.
So for October, we’re reading: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
Curiosity Questions (I mostly just want to get background on the general, society, the revolution, and the real story) :
- Who was General Alex Dumas?
- How did he go from being the son of a slave to Napoleon’s rival?
- What was it like to be black in French society at the time?
- More background on the French revolution.
- What was his relationship like with his son the author of The Count of Monte Cristo?
- What legacy does he really leave?
- What threads from the past can we connect to the present through his story?
Supplemental Material:
(Podcast): The Black Count: Interview with writer Tom Reiss
Ty’s TikTok below inspired this journey for me! Give her a follow and check out her series reading The Count of Monte Cristo <3
👻 Fall TV Binge List 👻
In babblings reports past, I typically do a fall movie watchlist, but since we have movie club and because I think this is really the best time to throw on a 4+ season long show to get you into the Fall mood I figured we’d do TV shows. I also wanted to do TV shows because hopefully these binges will last you a while and until the official start of winter which isn’t until December 21st!
Here are some shows that are a little spooky, a little gross, a little fun, a little fantastical and not your typical fall binges, at least most of them. (I’m taking the year off from Vampire Diaries 🫣)
1. Grimm
WATCHED
A dark fairytale twist on your classic crime show. We follow detective Nick as he discovers he comes from an ancient bloodline of Grimms, meant to find the creatures of the night and bring them to justice. It’s very fun, pretty dark and gruesome (like kinda gross sometimes), and feels like fall with the backdrop of a dreary Portland, Oregon.
2. Fringe
WATCHED
The X-files younger sister follows FBI agent Olivia as she gets deeper and deeper into a secret division investigating unexplainable events. Our trio of wacky smart old guy, his prodigy bad boy son, and determined FBI agent leads to some fun antics among the pretty horrific investigations. Get ready to weird and inter-dimensional.
3. Lovecraft Country
NOT WATCHED
“Based on Matt Ruff’s novel, this series follows Korean war vet Atticus Freeman, his friend Letitia and his Uncle George on a journey across 1950s Jim Crow America where they face racist terrors and the terrifying monsters of an H.P. Lovecraft paperback.”
-prime video
This has been on my watchlist forever! Can’t wait to finally watch!
4. True Blood
WATCHED (but never finished)
If you like me also need a break from The Vampire Diaries, let me introduce you to her sexy, campy, WILD, older cousin…
“Small-town Louisiana waitress Sookie Stackhouse already is viewed as an oddball by her friends and neighbours, since she can read the minds of those around her. She doesn’t exactly help her reputation, though, when she falls for Bill Compton, a 173-year-old vampire who has `come out of the coffin’ along with many of his undead comrades now that a new synthetic blood has made it possible for vampires to survive without preying on humans. Still, the conservative locals aren’t wild about mortal-vampire liaisons, especially Sookie’s boss, Sam Merlotte, who carries a torch for her. `Six Feet Under’ creator Alan Ball is behind this series adaptation of best-selling novels by Charlaine Harris.”
5. Charmed
WATCHED
To lighten the mood I want to put forth the classic Charmed! We follow three sisters as they discover their powers, fight demons, and navigate their bond, plus love life. The first couple season are a bit moodier, full of 2000s fashion, and just the theme song sets the Fall mood. I’ve been watching it in the mornings as my background show and it’s so nostalgic and cozy despite some mild gore. If you haven’t or haven’t in a long time, give it a revisit 🙂
6. Yellowjackets
NOT WATCHED
We’re no longer in cozy town, it’s full spook and grotesque here:
“Yellowjackets” tells the narrative of a team of wildly talented high-school girls soccer players who survive a plane crash deep in the Ontario wilderness. The series chronicles their descent from a complicated but thriving team to warring, cannibalistic clans, while also tracking the lives they have attempted to piece back together. Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher and Sammi Hanratty star as the teenagers, while Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis portray their adult counterparts as they reveal the truth about their survival 25 years later.”
7. The Magicians
NOT WATCHED
Another one that I’ve always wanted to dive into!
“Quentin Coldwater, a grad student at Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy, has been fascinated by the magical fantasy world since he was young. But as he has gotten older, Quentin and his 20-something friends have discovered that the magical world they read about as children is not only real, but it poses dangers to humanity. While studying at the secret upstate New York school, the friends struggle to cope with the aftermath of a catastrophe that befalls the institution. The fantasy series is based on a series of novels by Lev Grossman.”
HONORABLE MENTIONS: What We Do In The Shadows, Being Human (US & UK), The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, The Wire, X-Files, True Detective, Gilmore Girls, Dark Shadows, Davinci’s Demons, Downton Abbey, American Horror Story, A Discovery of Witches
