Kerry Morgan December, 2009

Tags: halloween, samhain

• Articles

Administrator October, 2009

Other Names:
celtic ~ Summer’s End, pronounced “sow” (rhymes with now) “en” (Ireland), sow-een (Wales) – “mh” in the middle is a “w” sound – Greater Sabbat(High Holiday) – Fire Festival Oct 31-Nov 1(North Hemisphere) – Apr 30-May 1 – The Great Sabbat, Samhiunn, Samana, Samhuin, Sam-fuin, Samonios, Halloween, Hallomas, All Hallows Eve, All Saints/All Souls Day(Catholic), Day of the Dead (Mexican), Witches New Year, Trinoux Samonia, Celtic/ Druid New Year, Shadowfest (Strega), Martinmas or Old Hallowmas (Scotttish/Celtic) Lá Samhna (Modern Irish), Festival of the Dead, Feile Moingfinne (Snow Goddess), Hallowtide (Scottish Gaelis Dictionary), Feast of All Souls, Nos Galen-gae-of Night of the Winter Calends (Welsh), La Houney or Hollantide Day, Sauin or Souney ( Manx), oidhche na h-aimiléise-the night of mischief or confusion(Ireland), Oidhche Shamna (Scotland)

Rituals:
End of summer, honoring of the dead,scrying, divination, last harvest, meat harvest

Incense:
Copal, sandalwood, mastic resin, benzoin, sweetgrass, wormwood, mugwort, sage, myrrh or patchouli

Tools:
Besom, cauldron, tarot, obsidian ball, pendulum, runes, oghams, Ouija boards, black cauldron or bowl filled with black ink or water, or magick mirror

Stones/Gems:
Black obsidian, jasper, carnelian, onyx, smoky quartz, jet, bloodstone

Colors:
Black, orange, red

Symbols & Decorations:
Apples, autumn flowers, acorns, bat, black cat, bones, corn stalks, colored leaves, crows, death/dying, divination and the tools associated with it, ghosts, gourds, Indian corn, jack-o-lantern, nuts , oak leaves, pomegranates, pumpkins, scarecrows, scythes, waning moon

Foods:
Apples, apple dishes, cider, meat (traditionally this is the meat harvest) especially pork, mulled cider with spices, nuts-representing resurrection and rebirth, nuts, pomegranates, potatoes, pumpkins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, roasted pumpkin seeds, roasted pumpkin seeds, squash.

Goddesses:
The Crone, Hecate(Greek), Cerridwen(Welsh-Scottish), Arianrhod(Welsh), Caillech (Irish-Scottish), Baba Yaga (Russian), Al-Ilat(persian), Bast (Egyptian), Persephone (Greek), Hel(Norse), Kali(Hindu), all Death & Otherworld Goddesses

Gods:
Horned Hunter(European), Cernnunos(Greco-Celtic), Osiris(Egyptian), Hades (Greek), Gwynn ap Nudd (British), Anubis(Egyptian), Coyote Brother (Native American), Loki (Norse), Dis (Roman), Arawn (Welsh), acrificial/Dying/Aging
Gods, Death and Otherworld Gods

Herbs and Flowers:
Almond, apple leaf , autumn joy sedum, bay leaf, calendula, Cinnamon, Cloves cosmos, garlic, ginger , hazelnut, hemlock cones, mandrake root, marigold, mums, mugwort (to aid in divination), mullein seeds, nettle, passionflower, pine needles, pumpkin seeds, rosemary (for remembrance of our ancestors), rue, sage, sunflower petals and seeds, tarragon, wild ginseng, wormwood

Animals:
Stag, cat, bat, owl, jackal, elephant, ram, scorpion, heron, crow, robin

Mythical Beings:
Pooka, goblin,medusa, beansidhe, harpies

Essence:
Magick, plenty; knowledge, the night, death & rebirth, success, protection; rest, new beginning; ancestors; lifting of the veil, mundane laws in abeyance, return, change

Dynamics/Meaning:
Death & transformation, Wiccan new year,wisdom of the Crone, end of summer, honoring, thinning of the veil between worlds, death of the year, time outside of time, night of the Wild Hunt, begin new projects, end old projects

Work:
Sex magick, release of bad habits, banishing, fairy magick, divination of any kind, candle magick, astral projection, past life work, dark moon mysteries, mirror spells (reflection), casting protection , inner work, propitiation, clearing obstacles, uncrossing, inspiration, workings of transition or culmination, manifesting transformation,creative visualization, contacting those who have departed this plane

Purpose:
Honoring the dead, especially departed ancestors, knowing we will not be forgotten; clear knowledge of our path; guidance, protection, celebrating reincarnation

Rituals/Magicks:
Foreseeing future, honoring/consulting ancestors, releasing the old, power, understanding death and rebirth, entering the underworld, divination, dance of the dead, fire calling, past life recall

Customs:
Ancestor altar, costumes, divination, carving jack-o-lanterns, spirit plate, the Feast of the Dead, feasting, paying debts, fairs, drying winter herbs, masks, bonfires, apple games, tricks, washing clothes

Element:
Water

Gender:
Male

Threshold:
Midnight

Tags: halloween, october, samhain

• Correspondences

Boudicca Andarta October, 2009

Halloween Black Cat Magick: calling upon the Egyptian Bast

We know the day as Samhain, but the non-magickal call it Halloween.  And what is Halloween without the iconic black cat; fluffy tail, arched back and seated on the back of a witches’ broom.  Besides being associated with Witches, how did the infamous black cat get to be the unofficial ambassador for the holiday?  Well, many goddesses have had feline companions of one sort or another including the Norse Freya and the Greco-Roman artemis-Diana but the goddess that is possibly best known as a cat is the Egyptian Bast.

Bast, or Bastet, wasn’t always as we know her today, she started out as Sekhmet.  Over time, Sekhmet transformed herself to meet the needs of the people and became two separate divinities, one the fierce Sekhmet who was called upon for protection, and the other was the gentle Bastet who was called upon for personal assistance in matters of conception.  In either form, Bast was the daughter of the sun-god Re (sometimes said to be the eldest daughter of Amun), but in the guise of Sekhmet, she was the “rage in his eye” and acted as the instrument of his vengeance.  The Egyptian Trinity was Sekhmet-Bast-Re and Bast was honored and venerated during special holidays through the imbibing of wine, beer and sometimes grape-juice.

During the worship of Bast and Sekhmet, the cat became a symbol of the goddess energy.  Cats were venerated for two-thousand years and the earliest known portrait of Bast dates back to 3000 BC.  Initially, she was portrayed as a lioness (Sekhmet), but from 1000 BC onward she took the form of a cat (Bast’s son Mihos has the head of a lion, so perhaps he has more of Sekhmet’s traits than those of his mother).  Bast is the more peaceable and benign form of Sekhmet and has both lunar and solar energies.  Bast is usually pictured as a woman with a cat’s head but sometimes with a lion’s head (Sekhmet) and has nurturing, motherly qualities.

As the benevolent form of Sekhmet, Bast is associated with domesticity, fertility, pleasure, healing and protection.  Her symbols are the sistrum, basket and the alabaster jar.  During her worship, her cult center was at Bubastis.  The cat was considered sacred and there were cat cemeteries full of mummified animals.  During the Helenic period, she was synchronized with artemis and took the more Sekhmet form of Pakhet (“she who tears”).

THE SPELL:

This is a very simple spell where you will ask for Bast’s help in a personal situation.  Perhaps you are looking to conceive a child or need healing.  Or, you could call upon Bast to quell your “bad side” (Sekhmet), and request help with your temper.  And, either version of the goddess (the benevolent Bast or the vengeful Sekhmet) could use their claws to protect your or your loved ones (cubs).  Whatever you feel you need help with, you will simply speak from your heart to the Goddess.

Supplies: most likely you don’t have an alabaster jar lying about, and you may not have a Bast statuette, so you can use a simple basket to represent Bast.  For an offering to her, you can choose between beer, wine or even grape-juice.

Begin by either creating sacred space or casting a circle in the manner of yoru tradition.

Open up the spell by calling to Bast:

“On this day of the Celtic Samhain,

I call upon the Egyptian Lion;

The Trinity: Sekhmet-Bast-Re,

Please bless me on this day.”

Place the basket on your altar after saying:

“Sacred Black Cat of Halloween,

Traveling worlds seen and unseen;

I honor this day the Egyptian Bastet,

Symbolized here by this basket.”

Hold up your offering of wine/beer/juice and say:

“By the magick of your lives of nine,

I give to you this offering of wine.”

Place the wine either in the basket itself or directly in front of it and say:

“I give to you this libation,

in exchange for aid in my situation.”

Speak to Bast in your own words as to what in your life needs to be rectified.  Let it all out and cry if you need to.   You should meditate to try to get an answer, so perhaps you would like to have a pen and paper nearby in case you get some immediate guidance from Bast.  When finished, express your gratitude to Bast by saying:

“My thanks to you, black cat goddess,

Egyptian queen in a lion’s dress.

I wish a happy Celtic New Year to you.

Please guide me in the work I do.”

Be sure to leave the offering overnight and then dispose of the remainder in the morning!

SOURCES:

Egyptian Paganism for Beginners by Jocelyn Almond & Keith Seddon

Encyclopedia of the Gods by Michael Jordan

Halloween by Silver RavenWolf

Offering to Isis: Knowing the Goddess Through Her Sacred Symbols by M. Isidora Forrest

Tags: black cat, halloween, samhain, Spell

• Spells & Rituals

Anne Baird October, 2009

CERRIDWEN

Samhain/Halloween

Samhain (pronounced “Sow-en”) or Halloween is the most magical night of the year! Celebrated on October 31st, beginning at sundown, it is the greatest of the four Pagan Sabbats that divide the ancient calendar into winter, spring, summer and fall. Samhain means “end of summer.” The summer reign of the Goddess is now over; the Winter King is on his way.

In ancient days, Samhain was the Celtic New Year, a time of gathering in for pastoral folk. Crops were harvested and stored. Animals were driven in from summer pasturage and slaughtered for food, or housed in barns and pens. People came home to ride out the harsh winter with families. Their very survival depended on the harvest and on a tightly knit community.

On this mysterious night when the old year turned to the new, the veils between the natural and supernatural world were thought to have thinned. The ghosts of ancestors, heroes, heroines, villains, and a host of fairy and otherworldly creatures, returned to Earth. Leprechauns might appear. Trees might talk.

The wise Celt honored returning spirits by setting out treats on the doorstep for them. Empty chairs were set at dining tables in case an unexpected ancestor popped in for a meal. Jack ‘o Lanterns were carved and carried to frighten off unfriendly ghosts. Costumes were worn as disguises to throw vengeful spooks off the track.

Samhain was also a night of serious reflection. Speculation about and resolutions for the future were made.

In this image, instead of the traditional black-costumed witch, I have painted Cerridwen, the wise Welsh triple goddess. (Maiden, Mother, Crone.) Cerridwen is celebrated as the “keeper of the cauldron.” Her story is powerful, and even a little frightening.

Cerridwen had two children: a beautiful daughter, and a very ugly son. To compensate for her son’s hideous appearance, the loving mother brewed a potent elixir of knowledge in her cauldron, intending to give it to Afagdu, so he might have wisdom since beauty had been denied him. However, as often happens, the magical gift went astray.

A young boy, Gwion, whose job was to constantly stir the magic brew for Cerridwen, accidentally splashed three burning drops of the mixture on his hand. He sucked on his burned fingers to relieve the pain. Instantly, he knew all the secrets of the past and of the future, as the gift intended for Afagdu became his instead.

The enraged goddess pursued Gwion to punish him. Using his newfound magical powers, the boy turned himself into many different creatures as he fled, trying to escape the Goddess. Finally, he cleverly turned himself into a single grain of corn. But Cerridwen turned herself into a hen, and ate the kernel!

From this seed, she became pregnant, and in due course, bore another son. This boy was so beautiful that she couldn’t bear to allow the jealous Afagdu to kill him, as she had promised. Instead, she sewed the infant into a bag, and cast him into the sea.

But even the wrath of Cerridwen and the malice of Afagdu could not deny the destiny of this magical child. A Welsh lord named Gwyddno Garanhir rescued him, named him Taliesin, and raised him to become the greatest bard and poet the Celtic world has ever known. He joined the court of King arthur at Camelot, where he became chief harpist and adviser to the legendary king.

Despite this fierce history, his mother, Cerridwen is revered as the goddess of inspiration, rebirth, regeneration, and divination.

On this night of introspection and new directions, she looks deep into her cauldron of water to see what the future may bring. She is focused, fearless, and filled with a discerning spirit. So may we all be.

Anne Baird, Designer/Owner of GODDESS CARDS, is a self-taught artist who has been painting and writing since childhood. Her chosen media for her unique line of greeting cards is watercolor, with touches of gouache, ink and colored pencil.

Her GODDESS CARD line grew from a birthday card she created for her daughter, Amanda, in 2001. Amanda was disheartened at being a curvaceous beauty in the Land of Thin. (Los Angeles.) That seminal card declaring, “You’re a GODDESS, not a nymph!” evolved into a long line of love notes and affirmations for ALL women. At over 125 cards, the line is steadily growing.

Anne is inspired by the archetypal Legendary Goddesses, who have so much to teach today’s women. Her greatest inspiration however, comes from the Goddesses of Today, who write her with wonderful suggestions and thoughts that expand her consciousness and card line.

She has launched  an E-Goddess Card website, where the Goddess on the Go can send Goddess “e-cards”, enriched with music and stories, at the click of a mouse. (A virtual mouse.)

Tags: cerridwen, halloween, samhain

• Articles