Tag: Samhain

The Witches Magick for November 1 – Witchcraft Spell

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Witchcraft Spell

To bless magickal work

Items You Will Need:

White candle

Book of Shadows

Athame or other magickal tools

Book of Spells

This is a great spell to cast on either the Full Moon or Samhain. It can be used by both Solitaries and Coven Witches. If you are working a particularly important piece of magick, you can say this blessing first. This is a good spell to ask your familiar to help out with if you have one. Just their presence in your circle will give your magick a boost.

Great Diana (or Hecate), Queen of Witches

Look down on me, your child

As I walk the Path of the Ancient Ones.

Bless these tools, that I might use them well

Bless these spells, that they may work as I desire

Bless my heart and mind

That I might practice in perfect love and perfect trust

Shine your light on all my magickal workings

For the good of all

And according to the free will of all

So Mote It Be.

 

Celebrating Spirituality 365 Days A Year – All Saints’ & All Hallows’ Day

magick89

November 1 and 2

All Saints’ Day/All Hallows’ Day

“All men should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.”

—Jame Thurber

“Youth had only spring green tones; we others of the more advanced season, have a thousand shades, one more beautiful than the other.”

—Count De Bussy-Rabutin

All Saints’ or All Hallows’ Day, according to Pagan custom, begins as the Sun sets the evening before on Samhain, the Festival of the Dead. It was made into a celebration of all the known saints and martyrs of the Catholic Church in the seventh century. Originally, it was celebrated on May 13, but was shifted to this date in the eighth century to coincide with the Pagan Festival of the Dead. This is a time of intercession for the dead souls that have not yet been purified and ascended to the next plane. Family members and relatives send prayers for their loved ones in the hope of helping them. Mumming, bonfires, the decoration of graves, and fortune-telling games are associated with the celebration.

Halloween Charm Bag For Drawing Money

Halloween Charm Bag For Drawing Money

from “HALLOWEEN, spells, customs and recipes”
by Silver Ravenwolf

You could make a bunch of these to use as Witchy Party favors at your Samhain party…. Write the instructions and ingredients to the charm but provide each guest with the orange bag. Okay here we go….. you will need (per charm):

7 pumpkin seeds 1/4 teaspoon dried, ground pumpkin rind 1/4 teaspoon dried mint 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon 1 silver coin 1 small orange flannel bag with 17 in. red ribbon black felt pen

On a new moon before Halloween, mix the herbal ingredients together Hum:

“East and west, and south and north Prosperity, I bring thee forth.”

Draw a dollar sign on each side of the pumpkin seeds.. Add the pumpkin seeds to the mixture. Pour into the orange bag. Hold the coin in your hands until it gets warm. Humming the same chant all through this. On the following Thursday, hold the bag in your hands and repeat the chant until the bag becomes warm. Add 7 knots to the ribbon around the bag – two are for money, three for abundance, four for stability, five for protection, six for luck, and the seventh know to seal the spell. Put away until Samhain.

On Samhain, hold the bag in your hands over the need fire until the bag warms in your hands. Repeat the chant as you do this. Keep on your person or in your purse etc. Good for one full year. You can rework the spell on a new moon to keep the bag at its peak This makes a very nice gift for the certain someone.

—RavenandCrone

Samhain Prosperity Spell

Samhain Prosperity Spell

Pass a skull (plastic or wax), some pumpkin spice and some dried pumpkin seed, a large white plate, a small bowl, a black bag, and a gold cord through incense smoke. Mix the seeds and spice in a bowl and stir counterclockwise to banish negativity, clockwise for the blessings of your ancestors. Place a list of your ancestors on the plate, and set the skull on top, sprinkling it with the seed and spice mixture. Hold your hands over the skull asking that your ancestors bring harmony and prosperity into your life, and cover the skull with the bag for seven days. On the seventh day, place the spice, seeds, and skull in the bag, and tie it all securely with the gold cord. Place it in the west part of your attic or basement.

—-RavenandCrone

Feast of the Dead

Feast of the Dead

Communication with the spirits is easiest at this time, for the veil between our world and theirs is very thin. It is a time to reflect on our ancestors and those who we have lost.

For the Witch, it is a holiday where we honor our dead friends, relatives, ancestors, and even pets who have passed on. We remember them by putting an extra plate at the dinner table for them.

Along the north wall of the dining room there is a small table prepared as an unobtrusive altar, and without preamble or fuss each person places there some small token or photograph of their dearly departed, some person or being whose memory or influence in their life still means something to them.

Each person quietly lights a candle for his or her various dead, and then they bow their heads in a moment of silence. Memories spill forth and emotions run deep. When it is time a bell is softly chimed and all stand.

A shared moment of silence is observed, and then everyone takes a turn making a toast to his or her chosen ancestor. The bell is sounded once more and everyone takes his or her place at the dining room table to partake of a feast enjoyed. In silence, each guest communing with their own spirits and remembrances.

We honor our ancestors at Samhain as they have honored us in the days before we were born. And as they shall honor us in the nights ahead when we eventually cross the river to take up our place beside those who have gone before into the greatest Mystery of all.

Samhain Activities of Our Ancestors

Samhain Activities of Our Ancestors

On this day people would gather early in the day since there were so many things going on. In olden times the affair would last for two or three days. Crafting included brewing Mead for the day’s festivities as well as for the winter season to come. They carved Jack-o-Lanterns to discourage negative spirits from bothering the people at the gathering. Candles were blessed for use throughout the winter, as well as blending oils for magical uses. Simples were brewed to make sure each person had a good tonic to see them through the hard days of winter.
Anything that was braided was thought to be lucky since it was binding things together and by doing that bringing the community closer together. Quilts were gathered to be finished and ladies shared their recipes for simples and for dying cloth. The men of the clan hunted for days before the gathering to insure food for everyone. Children would be sent on “Nutting” parties and they would produce that bounty to be shared by everyone.
Games of strength and chance were played by young and old alike. This was also a great time for story telling and in this way the patterns of life were passed down from one generation to another year after year. At this time of the year we are reminded of the tribal beginnings that we have all come from and it is appropriate that we still use the basic instruments of drum and gourd, cymbal, and horns. We chant together into the night and recreate the spiral dances.
Bringing people together for singing and dancing is very important even if they are not the best of singers or dancers. The manner of performance is not important, the pleasure of the joining is!

Spiritual Reaffirmation for the Witches New Year

Spiritual Reaffirmation for the Witches New Year

During the Witches’ New Year, or Samhain, take time to stop and evaluate your faith and beliefs. Make a sacred ritual or retreat out of this evaluation. Light white candles and burn sandalwood, myrrh, or frankincense. Brew a cup of herbal tea. Sit down and ask the God and Goddess to guide you on your path. Write down your beliefs in a journal or your Book of Shadows. Some questions you can meditate on are: What is life? How do I view the universe? Why am I here? What affirms my spirituality and what lessens it? How can I bring spirituality into my everyday life? After writing, you can create a statement of faith based on your answers to the questions. Recite what you write by candlelight for the universe to hear. Rediscover and rededicate yourself to your spirituality.

Calendar of the Sun for October 31st

Calendar of the Sun

31 Winterfyllith

SAMHAIN

Color: Black
Element: Air
Altar: The altar should be set as a table with a fine cloth and good dishes, and food for the Dead. Among the dishes places skulls, bones, a brazier, black candles, and pictures or items of the Dead.
Offerings: Give food to the Dead. Give divination to each other.
Daily Meal: Anything, so long as it is shared with the Dead.

Ritual Note: Like all the eight high holidays, this day should ideally be spent not enclosed and isolated, but in common with the larger pagan community. This can be done a number of ways, including spending the day elsewhere, at the Brigid’s Day ritual of another group or tradition, or by inviting in those pagans who would otherwise not be able to attend a ritual. Either way, the eight holidays should be a time of remembering the place of the house in the greater community. If the choice is made to go elsewhere, then no liturgy is needed for the day. If the choice is made to bring the greater community into the lesser one, the following ritual can be used.

This is the only rite on the solar calendar that is not celebrated at the hour of Sponde. Instead, Sponde is used for silent, solitary meditation. The Samhain rite is begun at Arktos, and all keep vigil overnight until Auge on the following day.

Samhain Ritual

(Four who have been chosen to do the work of the ritual come forward and cast the quarters.)

East Caller: Spirits of the East, powers of air
Winds that carry our ashes, winds that bear our cries,
Our howling on your black wings,
Today we speak for the beloved Dead,
We call to the Dead, and honor them with our voices!
Hear us!
South Caller: Spirits of the south, powers of fire
Flame of the altar and the cremation ground,
Stroke of scorched lightning,
We purify our lives as the funeral pyre,
We burn for the Dead, and honor them with our transformations!
Hear us!
West Caller: Spirits of the west, powers of water,
Still pools deep under the ground,
Drowning depths and freezing ice,
We give over our hearts to Necessity,
We drink with the Dead, and honor them with our surrender.
Hear us!
North Caller: Spirits of the north, powers of Earth,
Blackness that surrounds us, buries us,
Dust and the silence of waiting,
We see mortality etched onto our bodies,
We go into the Earth with the Dead, and honor them with our hands.
Hear us!

(One steps forward and holds high a cup of wine, saying:)

Drink, then, for the Dead!
Name them, those whom you have loved
Who have passed forth from this world
But are not forgotten.
Name them, those whom you never met
Save through words, or tales, yet still
Found a bond there to inspire,
To create courage, or brotherhood.
Name your ancestors of the blood,
Name your ancestors of the spirit.
Name your ancestors of the tribe.
Name your ancestors of the faith.
Call also to those for whom you have no names
But without whom you would not have been born.
Call to our Dead, as we do every year,
Remind them that they are not forgotten,
Remind them that they are still loved.

(The cup is passed, and each speaks of their beloved Dead. As they finish and drink from the cup, all say, “And he (or she, or they) too has a place at this table.” One follows behind the cup with a bunch of dried roses, collected and dried throughout the year from any rituals that used them, and gives each one a rose. The remainder of the roses are placed on the table. Another steps forth and holds high a crystal ball, and speaks the following as a call and response with all:)

Hail the Veil Between The Worlds!
Hail the bones in the Earth,
Hail the ashes in the fire,
Hail the fishes’ meal in the ocean,
Hail the birds’ meal on the mountaintop!
Hail the Hounds of Hel who eat the corpse!
Hail the Raven and the Vulture!
Hail the path which someday we all shall walk,
But we shall not walk alone!
Hail to our ancestors, who open the way for us!
Hail to the cold white breath of the Moon!
Hail to the drying heat of the Sun!
Hail to the ever-turning wheel of the stars!
Hail to salt of Earth and salt of tears!
Hail to the rot which feeds all new growth!
Hail to the cycle, which spins eternally!
Hail to the Dark, which is the counterpart of Light,
Hail to that Dark from which all life springs!
Hail to those who passed the Veil and returned,
Hail to those folk that we once have been,
And hail to those we will be again!
Hail to the Dead!
Hail to the Dead!
Hail to the Dead!

Chant:
Door of the ages
Veil of the years
Door of the darkness
Veil of our tears
Winds of our sorrow
Lift us in flight
Winds of tomorrow
Lift up our sight
Stones of the graveyard
Path we walk on
Stones of the labyrinth
Path of the dawn

(Each goes forth and places their dried rose in the fire of the brazier. Then one steps forward and says:)

The year is turning, and we stand at the crossroads.
Remember as you keep your vigil tonight,
That Darkness yields always to Light,
As Light yields always to Darkness,
And so shall it be, always and forever,
And so mote it be.

(All repeat “So mote it be.” Then all leave the room chanting together, and go solitary into various places to keep their vigil. The altar room is left as a feast for the Dead.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

The Witches Magick for Samhain – Honoring the Harvest’s End

Samhain Comments & Graphics

How To Honor the Harvest’s End

A Samhain Ritual for Wiccans and Pagans

By Patti Wigington, About.com

Celebrate the final harvest with a ritual.

Samhain represents, among other things, the end of the harvest season. If you haven’t picked it by Samhain, you probably won’t be eating it! The gardens have died off by now, and where we once saw lush green plants, there is nothing left but dry and dead stalks. The perennials have shut down for the season too, going dormant so that they may return to us in the spring. Animals are brought in from the fields for the winter — and if you’ve ever had a spider come wandering into your living room one chilly October night, you know that even the insects are trying to find a place to stay warm.

Here’s How:

If we had lived a few hundreds of years ago, we would not only have brought our cows and sheep in from the pastures. Most likely we’d slaughter a few of them, as well as some pigs and goats, smoking the meat so it would last through the cold months. Our grain that we picked back at Lghnasadhu has been baked into bread, and all of our herbs have been gathered, and hang from the rafters in the kitchen. The harvest is over, and now it’s time to settle in for winter with the coziness of a warm fireplace, heavy blankets, and big pots of comfort food on the stovetop.

If you want to celebrate Samhain as the time of harvest’s end, you can do so as a single ritual, or as the first of three days of ceremony. If you don’t have a permanent altar in place, set up a table to leave in place for the three days prior to Samhain. This will act as a your family’s temporary altar for the Sabbat. Decorate the altar with symbols of late fall, such as:

Skulls, skeletons, grave rubbings, ghosts

Harvest food such as pumpkins, squash, root vegetables

Nuts and berries, dark breads

Dried leaves and acorns

A cornucopia filled with an abundance of fruit and veggies

Mulled cider, wine, or mead

To begin your ceremony, prepare a meal for the family — and this is something that everyone can get involved in. Put emphasis on fruits and vegetables, and wild game meat if available. Also make sure you have a loaf of a dark bread like rye or pumpernickel and a cup of apple cider or wine. Set the dinner table with candles and a fall centerpiece, and put all the food on the table at once. Consider the dinner table a sacred space.

Gather everyone around the table, and say:

Tonight is the first of three nights,
on which we celebrate Samhain.
It is the end of the harvest, the last days of summer,
and the cold nights wait on the other side for us.
The bounty of our labor, the abundance of the harvest,
the success of the hunt, all lies before us.
We thank the earth for all it has given us this season,
and yet we look forward to winter,

a time of sacred darkness.

Take the cup of cider or wine, and lead everyone outside. Make this a ceremonial and formal occasion. If you have a vegetable garden, great! Go there now — otherwise, just find a nice grassy spot in your yard. Each person in the family takes the cup in turn and sprinkles a little bit of cider onto the earth, saying:

Summer is gone, winter is coming.
We have planted and
we have watched the garden grow,
we have weeded,
and we have gathered the harvest.

Now it is at its end.

If you have any late-fall plants still waiting to be picked, gather them up now. Collect a bundle of dead plants and use them to make a straw man or woman. If you follow a more masculine path, he may be your King of Winter, and rule your home until spring returns. If you follow the Goddess in her many forms, make a female figure to represent the Goddess as hag or crone in winter.

Once that is done, go back inside and bring your King of Winter into your home with much pomp and circumstance. Place him on your table and prop him up with a plate of his own, and when you sit down to eat, serve him first.

Begin your meal with the breaking of the dark bread, and make sure you toss a few crumbs outside for the birds afterwards. Keep the King of Winter in a place of honor all season long — you can put him back outside in your garden on a pole to watch over next spring’s seedlings, and eventually burn him at your Beltane celebration.

When you are finished with your meal, put the leftovers out in the garden. Wrap up the evening by playing games, such as bobbing for apples or telling spooky stories before a bonfire.

What You Need

A table to use as your Samhain altar

Decorations that represent the late autumn season

A meal with lots of veggies, fruit, and bread

A cup of wine or cider

Celebrating Our Spirituality 365 Days A Year – Samhain

Samhain Comments & Graphics
October 31st

Samhain, Halloween

Samhain (pronounced Sow-in) marks the end of the agricultural season and the beginning of Winter. For the Celts, who inhabited the British Isles more than 1,000 years ago, Samhain was the beginning of the year and the cycle of seasons. It was a time when they turned to their Gods, seeking to understand the turning of the cycle of life and death. For the Celtic people, Samhain was a time when the gates between this world and the next were open. It was a time of communion with the Spirits who were believed to roam free on this night. It was a time of divination, when the ancestors were contacted for warnings and guidance through the dark Winter months.

In medieval Ireland, Samhain was the major festival that marked the opening of Winter; it was sometimes spelled “Samain” or “Samuin,” although still pronounced the same. It was believed that Samhain was a time of unusual supernatural power, when all manner of fairies, goblins, and monsters roamed the Earth. It was unfavorable to walk about on this night, lest one might stumble onto an open fairy mound and fall victim to the fairy’s enchantment.

Samhain was also a time of truce with no fighting, violence, or divorce allowed. Hence it was a time of marriage. Acounts were closed, debts collected, contracts made and servants hired. Magickally, Samhain is a time of reflection, ending thing that are not producing results, and releasing negative thoughts. Samhain is the perfect time to make a talisman for self control and protection of the family and home.

Oh, What A Glorious Samhain Morn It Is, My Brothers & Sisters of the Craft!

Samhain Comments & Graphics

THE DRUMS OF SAMHAIN

The drums of Samhain keeping time.
The gates of magic open wide.

A cauldron’s blessings overflow.

The candle flames are dying low.

The witches dance the circle ’round to chant and bring the power down.

Hecate will hear our call
to turn the summer into fall.

The magic veil is growing thin.

The Netherworld is near our own.

We’ll see the sacred fire fed
while witches commune with the dead.

The winds of Autumn call our names.

The driving rhythm slowly calms.

The glowing embers we will tend
until the drums of Samhain end.

 

Wishing You A Very Blessed Samhain & A Prosperous New Year,

Lady Of The Abyss & The WOTC

The Witches Magick for Oct. 30th – Solitary Samhain Ritual

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Solitary Samhain Ritual

Place upon the altar apples, pomegranates, pumpkins, squashes and other late autumn  fruits. Autumn flowers such as marigolds and chrysanthemums are fine too.  Write on a piece of paper an aspect of your life which you may wish to be free of; anger, a baneful habit, misplaced feelings, disease. The cauldron or some similar tool must be present  before the altar as well, on a trivet or some other heat-proof surface (if the legs aren’t long enough). A small, flat dish marked with an eight-spoked wheel symbol should also be there. [This is just what it sounds like. On a flat plate or dish, paint a large circle.  Put a dot in the center of this circle and paint eight spokes radiating out from the dot to the larger circle. Thus, you have a wheel symbol  – a symbol of the Sabbats, a symbol of timelessness.]

Prior to ritual, sit quietly and think of friends and loved ones who have passed away.  Do not despair. Know that they have gone on to greater things. Keep firmly in mind that the  physical isn’t the absolute reality, and souls never die.

Arrange the altar, light the candles and censer, and cast the Circle of Stones. Recite the Blessing Chant. Invoke the Goddess and God.

Lift one of the pomegranates and, with your freshly-washed Boline, pierce the skin of the  fruit. Remove several seeds and place them on the wheel-marked dish. Raise your wand, face the altar and say:

On this night of Samhain I mark Your passing,
O Sun King, through the sunset into the Land of the Young.
I mark also the passing of all who have gone before,
and all who will go after.
 
O Gracious Goddess, Eternal Mother,
You who gives birth to the fallen,
teach me to know that in the time of
the greatest darkness there is the greatest light.
 

Taste the pomegranate seeds; burst them with your teeth and savour  their sharp, bittersweet flavour. Look down at the eight-spoked symbol on the plate; the Wheel of the Year, the Cycle of the Seasons, the End and Beginning of all Creation.

Light a fire within the cauldron (a candle is fine).  Sit before it, holding the piece of paper, gazing at its flames. Say:

Wise One of the Waning Moon,
Goddess of the Starry Night,
I create this fire within
Your cauldron to transform
that which is plaguing me.
May the energies be reversed:
From the darkness, light!
From bane, good!
From death, birth!

Light the paper in the cauldron’s flames and drop it inside. As it burns, know that your ill diminishes, lessens and finally leaves you as it is consumed within the universal fires.  [The cauldron, seen as the Goddess.]

If you wish, you may attempt scrying or some other form of divination, for this is a perfect time to look into the past or future. Try to recall past lives too, if you will.  But leave the dead in peace. Honor them with your memories but do not call them to you. [Many Pagans  do attempt to communicate with their deceased ancestors and friends at this time, but it  seems to me that if we accept the doctrine of reincarnation, this is a rather strange practice. Perhaps the personalities that we knew still exist, but if the soul is currently incarnate in another body, communication would be difficult, to say the least. Thus, it seems best to remember them with peace and love – but do not call them up.] 

Release any pain and sense of loss you may feel into the cauldron’s flames. Works of magick, if necessary, may follow. Celebrate the Simple Feast. The circle is released.

 

A Wonderful, Blessed Tuesday Morn’ to all our family & friends!

halloween kitty

Good morning dear family & friends! I hope you are having a very beautiful Tuesday morn. As you are hurrying around to get ready for Samhain, we have a small gift for you. The gift is something that will set the mood for all your rituals. Guessed what it is yet? It is some Samhain recipes for divination, Scrying and etc. We haven’t found these on the net anywhere. So perhaps you don’t have these recipes. We hope you enjoy them.

Divination Incense for Your Samhain Rituals

 

Divination Incense

2 parts sandalwood
1 part orange
1 part mace
1 part cinnamon
Burn during divination rituals
 

Fire of Azrael Incense

1 part sandalwood
1 part cedar
1 part juniper
½ part saltpeter
Burn prior to divination and Scrying
 

Moonfire Incense

1 part rose
1 part orris
1 part bay
1 part juniper
1 part Dragon’s blood
½ saltpeter
Burn for divination, love and harmony
 

Scrying Incense

1 part mugwort
1 part wormwood
Burn a small amount prior to divination.
 

Witches Sight Incense

1 part of each:
Gum mastic
Juniper
Patchouli
Sandalwood
Cinnamon
Few drops Musk oil
Few drops Ambertris oil
For Tarot readings, crystal balls readings, meditating.

Samhain Ritual Potpourri

Samhain Ritual Potpourri

by Gerina Dunwich

45 drops patchouli oil

1 cup oak moss

2 cups dried apple blossoms

2 cups dried heather flowers

1 cup dried and chopped apple peel

1 cup dried pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup dried and chopped mandrake root

Mix the patchouli oil with the oak moss, and then add the remaining ingredients. Stir the potpourri well and store in a tightly covered ceramic or glass container.

(The above “Samhain Ritual Potpourri” recipe is from “The Wicca Spellbook: A Witch’s Collection of Wiccan Spells, Potions and Recipes” by Gerina Dunwich, page 164, Citadel Press, Carol Publishing Group Edition, 1995.)

“An Autumn Chant”

“An Autumn Chant”

by Karen Bergquist

 
I will dance
The dance of dying days
And sleeping life.
I will dance In cold, dead leaves
A bending, whirling human flame.
I will dance As the Horned God rides
Across the skies. I will dance
To the music of His hounds
Running, baying in chorus.
I will dance With the ghosts of those Gone before.
I will dance Between the sleep of life
And the dream of death.
I will dance On Samhain’s dusky eye, I will dance.

“Samhain Dream”

“Samhain Dream”

by Myria/Brighid

It is Samhain …The Night of Shadows. The Circle is cast around the fire, And through the darkness, we glance, For the veils are thin, in this sacred night! Ancient voices around us, Whispering old and forgotten songs, While we dance the Spiral Dance, To meet Her. And there She comes, The Lady of the Gate! Power and compassion evolving us, As a dark but comforting wave. Beautiful Queen of the Dark Night! With Her mantle of raven’s feathers, And eyes deep with wisdom. Cerridwenn! She opens Her arms, in a welcoming embrace, We feel around us the flow of love, Of Her Eternal Grace. And then we hear Her voice, Melodious and grave, That speaks from inside our soul, As an echo in a cave. Blessed Daughters of My Heart, I hear your prayers from afar. And that is why I came tonight! Do not despair when the times are hard! Do not abandon the Path you found! For time has come for My return, And you, Loved Ones, shall open the way, Singing my name as the ancient bards. I am always with you, do never doubt that! I am the Old and the Young One! I am the Keeper of the Gate! I am the Master of Time! I am the Dark Goddess of Death! I am the Bright Goddess of Dawn! I am The One! I am Cerridwenn!

Samhain Approaches

samhain18

I was about half asleep this morning, drinking my coffee. I was thinking about Samhain and how I looked forward to it each year. To me, it is the most beautiful time of the year.

The Veil is thinning, the energy is rising, you can feel it coursing through your veins. The magick and excitement is building in the atmosphere. For Witches, this is the most magickal time of the Year. We make plans on how we are going to celebrate. What kind of rituals we are going to do? What time should we start them? Any ancestors going to show up this year? Lots to do and little time left to do it.

I know what I am getting ready to say the Elders in the Craft already know and have heard it a thousand times. I just wanted to talk to the new ones to the Craft about what to expect or not. They come to our Religion so full of joy, eager to learn, wanting to do everything just right. Samhain is exciting for the Elders, can you imagine what it is like for the new ones? That is why I am writing this. I love each of you. I never want you to face discouragement or doubt yourself. I just want you to always be prepared. I know we all talk about our Ancestors and doing rituals to bring them back. You know it is breathtaking to have that kind of power.

I know when I did my first ritual to call my Ancestors back, I got very disappointed. No body showed up! I had been a witch for a long time but it was still a blow to the ego. I guess the reason mine don’t show up is because they stop by for a visit all the time. I went about double checking and checking again, what did I do wrong? I always thought it was me, always. Then it hit me, my ancestors might have reincarnated. It wasn’t that they didn’t love me or want to be with me. They had been reincarnated.

All those years, I felt like it was me and that does effect you. Then I realized how selfish I had been. Instead of feeling disappointed and unloved, I ought to have been rejoicing. They had all been reincarnated and they walk this plane as I do. Don’t do as I did. If, after all your preparation, none of your ancestors appear, don’t be sad. Instead rejoice and be proud for they are here with you on this plane. They were given the opportunity to live again.

Celebrate your ancestors, give them the honor and respect they deserve. But if no one appears, don’t be disappointed, you did nothing wrong. Your ancestors have been reincarnated. Now that is something to celebrate. They were given the opportunity to walk this plane with us. Thank the Goddess for giving them the opportunity to be reborn.

I don’t want to dim your hopes, I just want you to be prepared. No one ever told me and I guess the Goddess was the one who finally revealed to me what had happened. I have years when ancestors show up, then I have years when they don’t. But I go ahead and make all the preparations. I invite my ancestors home to visit with me for a while. When they do show up, that makes up for the year no one showed. The experience is indescribable. You have to experience for yourself. Make your preparations,  prepare your rituals and your spells. But please learn from me, if no one shows up, rejoice for their new body and soul they have been given. Rejoice because our Goddess chose them as being worthy enough to reincarnate. Never stop trying to communicate with them, never. Always make preparations for their coming. You have nothing to lose but everything in this great Universe of our to gain.

Samhain might seem like a dark time of the year. A time when death is all around us. But it is also a time to celebrate new life.

When The Crone Pays A Visit, You’d Better Pay Attention

When The Crone Pays A Visit, You’d Better Pay Attention

Author:   Maire Durkan   

(Samhain 2012) I wake in pre-dawn hours, heart pounding. I’d placed photographs of my beloved dead on my altar, placed a welcome offering of my dad’s favorite candy and whiskey, and lit a candle. I’d asked for a dream—contact with a message—and had expected something like the warm and loving messages I received during Audience With the Ancestors, a Samhain ritual performed by my coven (Grail of the Birch Moon) and member covens of the Assemble of the Sacred Wheel in three locations. I expected a message along the lines of “follow the way of love, ” but the Wise Woman, the Crone, had visited me in the darkness of night, in the waning of the moon, bringing the chill of winter and a stern message.

I have never been a lucid dreamer. So, when I find myself in my very own bedroom confronted by a messenger dressed in black who is–shall we say–brutally frank, I’m pretty freaked out. First, the specter makes sure that I am icy cold (which certainly gets my attention) , then she dissolves the headboard of my bed and tears chunks out of the door to a very real crawl space behind it while my father (who passed in 2008) tells me to “wake up.”

This dream is not a nightmare—but its message is certainly stern. So, I wake to a room not quite as frigid as the astral room. When my heart rate dropped to normal, it was time to figure out my spiritual game plan.

As I’ve said, the crawl space is quite real and exactly where it was in the dream. There are a lot of things in that crawl space—old manuscripts, old books, old clothes, old memories good and not so good—things that I’m not quite ready to part with because they hold a part of me for good or ill.

As the space is behind the very large, very solid oak headboard of a behemoth of a bed, I can’t get at it without putting in a lot of effort. I put them there for a variety of reasons—nostalgia, the hope that they’ll be repurposed, and even (in the case of the manuscript) because I couldn’t bear to look at it but couldn’t bear to throw it away either.

Clearly, it is time for me to do some shadow work. But I don’t want to! That’s why all that stuff is packed away in an almost inaccessible physical space and in an equally inaccessible space inside of me. I have a hunch that the Goddess and my dad expect a New Year’s cleaning that involves more than sorting through the tangible junk that lurks behind that closed door.

As I do a lot when I’m working through “things, ” I take a walk in the woods and farmland around the Brandywine River Valley. Sometimes, the land and the beings that inhabit it, have lessons to teach me and sometimes the process of walking in the quiet countryside helps me find my way to an answer or at least help me pose questions that point me toward more clues.

The woods have turned towards winter. A cold breeze rattles bare limbs and dry leaves spiral down onto damp, cold earth. In the meadow, horses stand in groups, nose to nose. A maple tree felled by Hurricane Sandy lies across the path pressing down the electric wire around the fields of dun colored corn stubble. Its branches are filled with the tight knots of next year’s buds– life and potential that will never be realized in its current form–although it will be transformed and used. Nothing in nature goes to waste.

Near the last unharvested soybean fields migrating robins chirp with alarm, then fall silent as a local red tailed hawk wheels overhead. I’m like the robin, chirping, alarmed. Then, silent…listening…watching.

The woods hold death and danger –felled trees, downed leaves, and the feathers left from a kill; this is a cycle. I must embrace this–for it is my story as much as the tree’s or the bird’s. But it was also full of life. In strong roots that held firm despite Sandy’s fury. In the animals that are foraging or hibernating. In the last red clovers blooming low to the ground. In the Red Tail soaring high above crying its glorious “Keeyerr!” I whisper, “She changes everything She touches and everything She touches changes.”

It’s time for me to touch, to draw out, acknowledge, and change. Nature is filled with harsh truths that I need to apply to my spiritual habitat. I have held on to old grief and hurt too long. I lock them away, unexamined, because they are too painful to acknowledge, but too much a part of me to easily relinquish.

It’s time to ground, center, pray for compassion and take them out of the darkness. It’s time to do the hard work of removing barriers that give false comfort and open the door to that shadowed place within myself.

Shadow work is as painful and healing as the nettle plant. Sometime the sting has to come before healing can begin.

When I get home, I know what I must do. This is my first task of the new year. Mastering my fear, I must open physical and spiritual doors, reach into the darkness, and bring what I’ve stored and hidden into the light to be examined, sorted, kept or discarded.

At fifty-two, (to paraphrase the Bard) , I’m a tree approaching winter. A tree shaped and weathered by many seasonal cycles. My roots are strong, deep, and I can withstand this shadow work. But I am still a vibrant, sexual, life-embracing woman. I acknowledge shadows and darkness and will to examine the things that I have hidden with care…but I will not hide there –I will open the dark door, embrace the Crone and embrace this new and powerful cycle of my life.

Preparing for Summerland During Samhain

Preparing for Summerland During Samhain

Author:   Crystal T.  

During the Sabbat of Samhain, many of us think it is the time when we need to remember our ancestors. Many of us set out photos of our relatives, friends and other loved ones that have passed. Some of us may set the table one night this month for a “Dumb Supper”. The veil is considered to be at its thinnest, and yet during this time one topic is rarely ever discussed:
Death. Yes, you read it correctly, death. More importantly, this is about your death!

Remembering the past is indeed a beautiful thing, but what about a topic that not a lot of people think about during this time… how would YOU want to be remembered when your time comes?

No matter if you want to be buried, cremated, or otherwise, one thing will most likely happen: An obituary will be written in your name. In some cases, someone who has never met you writes it. Your local newspaper editor is simply putting together words about you from a standardized form that was supplied to them by the funeral home that handled the processing of your physical body. I don’t mean to seem cold; it is something I don’t want to happen to me. I want to be remembered for what I accomplished in my lifetime, the things I loved, as well as the people I loved. Granted, the paper may not always honor final your wishes, but there are some things you can do to insure that your directives are followed.

Back in 2008, my father passed away. This motivated me to start researching on what I wanted when my time came. I began to research various things from “Pagan funeral” to “Green Burial”. I met a wonderful woman and Death Midwife, Nora Cedarwind Young as a result of my research. Throughout the past few years, she has become a mentor and friend. I have also learned from Nora to be pro-active in planning what I want to happen when my time comes to return to Gaia. Nora has taught me that there are six essential documents a person should have prepared and ready for when their time comes. They are:

1. A Will: A will is a legal document that states what you want to happen after you die. It includes naming a person or persons in charge of handling your estate, distribution of any property, and naming care for any minor children such as guardianship.

2. A Living Will: A Living Will is the document that will distinguish your wishes regarding medical treatments in prolonging your life when you are unable to do so for yourself. This may also be called a Health Care Directive or Advance Directive. A Living Will is also only good when your medical prognosis is deemed unrecoverable such in cases of a terminal illness.

3. Power of Attorney – Health: This paper names a person who would be in charge of your health and make decisions for you in the case you are not able to make them for yourself. This is also known as a Health Care Proxy.

4. Power of Attorney – Finance: This is the document where you would name someone to take charge of your finances when you are unable to do so yourself. Normally it will be your spouse, parent, adult child, or person you deem worthy of the responsibility.

5.Disposition of Body: This is the paper where you state your desire for burial, cremation, organ donation, etc. Please note that in some states, your spouse or next of kin has more rights to determine what is done with your body after you die more so than you do. This is where communication of your desires and wishes are discussed with your family.

6.HIPAA: This form is not to be confused with a HIPPA, which is something else. For a HIPAA you will need to complete and sign a HIPAA Privacy Authorization Form if you want a person beside yourself to have access to your medical records while you are competent.

If you are financially able, prepare these forms as soon as you can. I personally update my records every Samhain just in case something has changed. If you are not able to prepare these forms with a lawyer, there are some computer software applications available for a small amount available at your local office supply store, Best Buy, or available on the internet. Dependent on which state you live in, you might need to determine if the computer software “do it yourself” versions are legal.

Recently this past year, I was diagnosed with kidney disease. This began a journey for me into the many cases of “what if”. I am in no way ready to use any of these six essential documents, but I do however want my husband to be prepared on what I want to happen should something happen to me. I have everything written down in a notebook. We are in the process of drafting paperwork with a lawyer after saving up to prepare it for the welfare of our children should something happen to the both of us for guardianship of our minor children. I want him to know what I want as regarding funeral rites right down to the articles of clothing I want to wear. I have certain items that I wish passed on to (or returned to original person that gifted them to me) others that I have purchased or received over the years.

All these items are very important. One last thing you might want to consider writing during this time of year is your own obituary. Now your version may not make it to the newspapers, but it could be a valuable gift to those you love. This document would be the story of your life.

What do you want to be remembered for? What accomplishments did you achieve over your lifetime? What were your favorite foods, songs, television show, movies, etc? Give them the details that you want them to have. Throw in a fact or two they may not even know. Make them laugh; make them cry.

They will be glad that you gave them this last gift. In essence, this would be writing your own biography. Give them a piece of your history with this document. By simply writing the story of your life and then updating it each and every Samhain as our lives change and grow, it will make it easier on your family in the long run… knowing what your final wishes are and how you want to be remembered.

If you need more information about any of these things, I urge you pay a visit to Nora Cedarwind Young’s website. It is called Thresholds of Life (www.thresholdsoflife.org) and contains much valuable information.

I wish each and every one of you a “Spellbound Samhain”!

Sincerely,
Crystal LunaRouge

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Footnotes:
http://www.thresholdsoflife.org