Samhain

The Pagan new year.
A sabbat to honour our ancestors, and those who've passed over. A time when the veil between this world and the next is thinnest.
A time for reflection; look at what we can leave behind us, and what we can take forth into the celtic new year.
A time when we welcome the Crone aspect of the Goddess, and the Horned God.

Traditionally this time in the Wheel of the year, is great for séances, or ancestoral meditation. It's also important, to give thanks for the harvest we've received in the old year, and ask for protection in the upcoming winter.
As a fire festival it is the perfect time for a bonfire, and working fire magic. A long nature walk, enjoying the autumnal changes you see, is for some enough to honour in the new year.

The best thing about Witchcraft is that their are no right or wrong ways to practice, as long as what you do harms none. Annually the way I celebrate the different sabbats changes, but there are some things that are routine now, and my rituals wouldn't feel correct without.

Here is a list of my must haves for my Samhain Celebration;

• An Apple (to cut in half, segment some to eat, and then bury the rest in the earth)
• An Orange Candle
• A Black Candle
• My Rose Quartz Chunk (which I used in a goodbye ceremony for my faithful childhood dog, Sheba. I use this to meditate upon, and connect with her and others passed)
• A Paper and Pen (To write down all the things you wish to banish in the new year. I then burn them.)
• Tarot Deck
• A Small Pumpkin
• Wine (To drink to the Crone and The Horned God)

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The Veil is thinning -
The invisible curtains are being drawn aside.
Whispers filter through.
Voices of those long passed, are carried on the wind;
Caught in the tumbling leaves.
Ghostly presence occupies space,
The Spirits walk among us.
Now is the time for divination,
The hours to ask for guidance.
When the moon is high in the night sky,
Raw energy can be harnessed.
Loved ones beam at you unseen from the curtains shadow,
Opaque and shimmering.
Answer the voices,
Hone in your power,
This shared energy...
The bewitching hour.
Feel them
See them
Use them.
Be grateful and reward them.
Pull your cards knowing that today they have decades, centuries, of magic and energy penetrating them from the Otherside.
Turn your runes with assertion.
Sip your tea, and gaze at the stories the leaves have to tell.
Open your mind,
But...
More importantly,
Open your heart.
They're waiting...