Samhain Ideas and Activities
Author is Unknown to me...
Leave milk and honey for the fae folk
Make resolutions, write them on a small piece of parchment, and burn in a candle flame, preferably a black votive candle within a cauldron on the altar.
Wear costumes that reflect what you hope or wish for in the upcoming year.
Carve a jack-o-lantern and place a candle in it.
Choose and enthrone a Winter Queen and King the counterparts of the May Queen and King
Make masks and costumes representing the different aspects of the God and Goddess and wear them to ritual or used to decorate your altar or temple area
Have each covener bring a carved pumpkin and carry it, lit, above their head in procession to your ritual site in memory of all those who perished during the burning times or your own dearly departed.
Symbolically extinguish the "hearthfire" of your home and then re-light it from the Samhain Sabbat Fire or cauldron.
During ritual invite departed friends and family into the circle and tell them of all that had happened in your life since their departure. You may wish to set a place for them at your dinner table and use this time to contact them. This is a good time to talk to them of any unresolved issues that you may have had with them and to let them go.
Slice an apple on the altar displaying the star within and say, "this is the fruit of life- which is death " and then slice a pomegranate and display the seeds saying, " this is the fruit of death- which is life."
Enjoy the trick or treating of the season.
Drink apple cider spiced with cinnamon to honor the dead.
Bury an apple or pomegranate in the garden for spirits passing by on their way to being reborn.
Leave food outside as an offering to the dead
Do divination for the next year using whatever form of divination appeals to you.
Make a magick wand of oak, holly, ash, rowan, birch, hazel, elm, Hawthorne or willow.
Let this be the traditional time that you make candles for the coming year, infusing them with color, power, herbs, and scent depending on the magickal purpose.
At Samhain, witches once gave one another acorns as gifts. During the Burning Times, giving someone an acorn was a secret means of telling that person you were a witch.
Acorns are fruits of the oak, one of the most sacred trees to the ancient Celts. They are symbols of protection, fertility, growth, values, and friendship. Perhaps you would like to continue this tradition and give acorns as gifts this season. You might like to paint them gold as a God symbol and decoration.
Have a New Year's Party-it is, after all, the Celtic New Year!
Honor the dead, remember those you loved who have passed on-perhaps by putting their pictures or something they gave you on your altar during your ritual.
Carve faces in apples and pumpkins
Mix up some hot mugwort tea
Spell of the Week
Mirror Spell of Protection for the Home
Compose an altar:
Burn a protective incense (such as frankincense, sandalwood, copal or rosemary) in the censer.
Beginning with the candle most directly before the Goddess image, say these or similar words:
"Lunar Light, protect me!"
Repeat as you light each candle until all are glowing.
Now, holding the mirror, invoke the Goddess in Her Lunar aspect with these or similar words:
"Great Goddess of the Lunar Light
And Mistress of the Seas;
Great Goddess of the Mystic night
And of the Mysteries;
Within this place of candles bright
And with your mirror nigh;
Protect me with your awesome night
Whilst ill vibrations fly!"
Standing before the altar, hold the mirror facing the candles so that it reflects their flames. Keeping the mirror toward the candles, move
slowly, clockwise around the altar, watching the reflected firelight bouncing off your surroundings.
Gradually increase your speed, mentally invoking the Goddess to protect you. More faster and faster, watch the light shattering the air,
cleansing it, burning away all negativity and all lines along which the ill energies have traveled into your house.
Charge your home with the protective light of the Goddess. Race around the candles until you've felt the atmosphere change, until you feel that
your home has been cleansed and guarded by the Great Goddess.
When finished, stand once again before the image. Thank the Goddess in any words you wish. Pinch out the candles one by one, bind them together with white cords and store them in safe place until (& if) you need to use them again for the same purpose.
***
author unknown to me...
Craft of the Week
Runes
Items needed:
- Glass gems or pebbles that are used in floral arrangements. Wal-Mart has them in the florist section.
- electric engraver
- safety glasses
- material
- ribbon
- sewing machine or needle and thread
Directions:
- Practice your engraving on old drink bottles if you are not used to using one. Use the bottles later for the Bottle Tree! Make SURE you ALWAYS wear your safety glasses when engraving with glass!
- Once you have become proficient at engraving, engrave the individual runes onto each pebble.
- Fold the material in half and sew up the edges. Fold the top edge over approx. 1/2 inch and sew, fold again and sew again.
- Place the runes in the bag and secure bag with ribbon.
To see which runes to use and how to cast them, try RUNES
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Fun link of the Week
Divination Link of the week
Since Samhain is coming up, and the veil
is at its most thin now, your divination practice
can have some unusual and pleasantly surprising
effects. However, if you have ever met me, you will know that I have the perpetual tongue -in-cheek, so here is a divination link along that vein:
http://www.annabeth.co.uk/playtarot/tarotreader.html
Brand New at the Grove!!
Just added this week is a new section within the BoS entitled, "Magic - KISS Style."
This is not meant to be the only way that magick is practiced, but I hope will provide you with the tools to think quickly (magickally) when the situation merits it.
Content will be added weekly, so please check back often.
https://athena523.tripod.com/bookofshad/shadowindex.html
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