Halloween is also called Samhain (Sowen) in the pagan community. This is classed as the Celtic New Year. It is a time of endings and of beginnings. I find it deeply satisfying that the Celts celebrated their new year in the dark, before the return of the light. It is a time of inward-ness, of looking to ourselves, facing our fears and shouting 'I am not afraid to face this year. I will take all that it throws at me and I will roar in its face.' There's a fierce defiance, a fierce careless bravery about this.
As a time of endings, we say farewell to our loved ones and think about those who have gone before. Not just our parents/grandparents, but those several generations back. We wonder how they lived, loved and died. What their dreams and fears were.
In Scotland, telling ghost and faerie stories is a favourite past time and has been for a few centuries. Halloween has always been the favoured time to do this. Apple dooking (bobbing for apples) is another. And divining for your future lover/life partner is another. There were many ways of doing this - peeling an apple while reciting the alphabet and whenever the peel fell away on a letter, that would be the initial of your lover. The same goes for twisting the stem. Looking into a mirror to see a face was another way. Popping a posy of herbs under your pillow at night was a way to entice dreams of your love as well.
In the UK we never had 'trick or treating'. We had guising. This was the same sort of thing but the guisers, those going round houses looking for treats, had to tell a joke, poem or sing a song to win their treat. And you didn't trick someone. I miss this aspect of life. Only in the last 20 years has this died out.
So what do you like to do for Halloween? Do you like to dress up and party or light a candle for those who have passed? Do you celebrate the New Year or do some quiet divination? Or a combination?
The 28th of October is the beginning of the Celtic Tree Month Reed (or Elm). A water element tree. This is a great tree for using music in your magic, as well as for divination. Protection spells are good just now. It is also a good luck tree, so talismans made with this wood are especially effective. It is sacred to Odin, and the Festival of Woden is on the 2nd of November.
On the 1st of November, All Saints Day, or Beltain in the Southern Hemisphere, we also see the festival of the Fogmoon. This was a day of remembrance, dedicated to Odin and also to Freya. This is also the festival of Pomona, called Pomonia, the Roman Goddess of orchards. This is a very busy time of year.
Sacred fruit of this time are apples and pomegranates but also anything coming from an orchard xx
BB x
On another note, I have written 3 books. 2 are part of a series set in Scotland about the Sidhe, fairy folk. Available on kindle and in paperback: The Island of the Mist is book 2 The Stone in the Sword is book 1
The 3rd book is an adult, sexy witchy werewolf/vampire story set in New York and featuring a strong female lead character, again available in kindle and paperback formats: The Wolf, the Witch and the Coffin
