Hearthkeeper October, 2010

Samhain is a time to honor our ancestors. The veil between here and Summerland is at it’s thinnest and we can commune and communicate with our loved ones who have moved on to the next phase of their lives.  It has become traditional to have a “dumb” supper. This is a meal that is eaten in silence by candle light. Each food can be as simple or as gourmet as you wish it to be. I like mostly simple made with foods from my garden or local farms. I will add the correspondences before the recipes.

Symbols: Third Harvest, wisdom of the Crone, death of the God, reflection on our place in the Wheel of the Year, reincarnation, the dark mysteries, Rebirth after Death.

Foods: Beef, Pork, Poultry, Colcannon, Bonfire Toffee,  anything with Apples, Doughnuts, Roasted Ear Corn, Popcorn, Caramel Corn, Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Bread, Roasted Pumpkin Seeds, King Cake, Pomegranates, Sweet Potatoes, Squash, Beets, Turnips, Nuts, Gingerbread, Cider, Mulled Wines, Mead, Late Autumn Fruits.

Plants & herbs: Angelica, Burdock, Catnip, Pennyroyal, Rosemary, Rue, Sunflower, Sage, Thyme, Wild Ginseng, Tarragon, Mugwort, Calendula, Chrysanthemum, Cosmos and Marigold.

HOT SPICED PUNCH

1 large can of unsweetened pineapple juice

1 quart of cranberry juice cocktail

1 cup brown sugar

3 – 2″ sticks of cinnamon

1 Tablespoon of whole cloves
Put the cloves in a cloth bag. Boil in 2 cups of water. Let cool. Pour clove water and juices into large container. Mix well. Pour into large kettle and bring to a boil. Serve hot in cups or mugs.

Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
Sea salt
pepper, freshly ground
1 can (1 pound) pumpkin, or 2 cups fresh, peeled, and cubed
2 Yukon Gold (or yellow) potato, peeled and cubed
5 cups Chicken broth( or vegetable)
2-3 tablespoons dry sherry
1/2 cup half-and-half or soy cream (optional)

In a heavy soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat and sauté the
Onion for about 5 minutes, until softened. Add in the chopped carrots
and celery and stir in the spices. Lower the heat and gently cook for
About 10 minutes, being careful not to overbrown the onions.

Add in the pumpkin, potato, and vegetable broth and stir. Add in the dry
Sherry, stir, and bring to a slow simmer, cooking the soup for about
25-35 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Remove from heat.

Carefully ladle the soup into a blender. Cover and puree the soup until
It is smooth and creamy. Return the puree to the soup pot and adjust the
Seasoning to your taste. Stir in the half-and-half, if desired, and
Blend until smooth. Serve at once in a festive bowls with a basket of
Warm bread  or croutons.

Serves 4-6

Wild Thyme Pasta Salad
Ingredients:
1 package spiral pasta
1 jar artichoke hearts

Lightly sautéed (or steamed) mushrooms, onion, broccoli, zucchini, carrots and

peppers(I use frozen broccoli stir fry veggies) cooled
Sliced tomatoes
Wild Thyme dressing( see below) you can use robusto Italian dressing in a pinch
Boil pasta. Let cool then add sliced tomatoes, mushrooms & artichoke hearts.
Mix well & add the seasoning. Let sit in the refrigerator for a few hours, Serve chilled.

Wild Thyme Dressing

1/2 c olive oil

1/8 c vinegar

½ tsp wild thyme

¼ tsp rosemary

¼ minced garlic

1/8 c roasted red pepper

Salt/ pepper to taste

Place in blender and blend until smooth. Place in jar and refrigerate until needed.

Quick and Simple fruit compote

INGREDIENTS:
4 apples, peeled, cored, chopped into chunks
1/2 cup pineapple with juice
1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tbs. Brown sugar

DIRECTIONS:
Place the apples in a food processor or blender and process
For 1 minute. If you don’t have either of these appliances,
Then just chop the apples by hand, very small. Place the
Apples, pineapple and juice, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a
Saucepan and stir to combine the ingredients. Cook on medium
Low for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the
Heat and let the sauce cool for 15 minutes. Store the sauce
In a jar in the refrigerator.

Yield: 2 cups of Apple Sauce

Remembrance roast

1 chicken or pork loin roast

1 small Onion, chopped

1 cloves Garlic, minced

1 Tablespoon Fresh parsley, chopped

1/2 Bay leaf, crushed

1/2 teaspoon Celery seeds

1/2 teaspoon Dry thyme

1 teaspoon chicken bouillon

Garlic powder

salt & pepper to taste

Fold 2 large sheets of aluminum foil together with a double fold. There should be enough to enclose the roast. Place roast on foil. Sprinkle other ingredients over top. Enclose roast tightly in foil and cook in 300 degree oven for approximately 20 minutes PER pound. Until roast reaches 160 degrees.

Cheesy Rosemary Biscuits

Old fashioned biscuits are a treat at any season.

2 cups unbleached, all purpose flour
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese or cheddar
2 1/2tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. fresh rosemary, minced
1 stick unsalted butter or margarine, chilled
1/2 cup milk (or more if needed)
2-3 Tbs. dry sherry
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a large bowl combine the flour, cheese, baking powder,
salt, rosemary .
Cut the chilled butter into pieces and mix into the
flour mixture, crumbling the dough.
Add the milk and sherry and quickly ,mix the dough
just until the ingredients are moistened. Lightly
knead the dough inside the bowl a few times to
form a ball, and place on a floured surface. Roll out the dough with
a floured rolling pin ), to  about 1/2 inch thick.

Cut out rounds with a cookie cutter or jelly glass
and place them on a baking sheet. Bake them for 10
to 12 minutes, until they are golden brown.

Makes about 15 to 18 biscuits.

Garlic String beans

1-2 pounds fresh string beans

2 cloves garlic

Butter or olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Sautee green beans with garlic in the butter/oil until cooked crisp tender

Pumpkin Bread

2/3 cup Shortening

1 teaspoon Nutmeg

2 2/3 cups Sugar

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

4 large Eggs

2 teaspoons Baking soda

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1/2 teaspoon Baking powder

3 1/3 cups Flour

2/3 cup Water

1 can Pumpkin

1 1/2 teaspoons Salt

Mix all the above ingredients together, pour into 2 loaf pans. Bake at 350~F for 50 – 60 minutes. You can add dates and nuts if you like.

Quick Apple Spice Cake

This is the fastest quickest cake recipe for those pagans that have not got enough time

to really cook!

You will need the following:

1 spice cake mix

1 small package of vanilla pudding

1 can apple pie filling

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup milk

1 container of caramel apple dip (optional)

you will also need a microwave safe pan or Bundt type pan.

Mix all of the ingredients together except for the dip, they do not have to be mixed until
the mix is smooth. Pour into your pan and cook on 70% for 16 – 18 minutes or until done
(dry on top and pulling away from the sides). Let it cool slightly and pour the caramel
apple dip over the top and Enjoy!

Until next month
Merry Cooking and Blessed Eating
The Hearthkeeper

PS. If there is anything you would like to see here.. Please email me at  thehearthkeeper@gmail.com

Tags: holiday, Recipes, sabbat, samhain

• Recipes

CricketSong October, 2010

Our Family’s Samhain Traditions

Samhain is my favorite of the eight annual Sabbats that my family and I observed as part of the Wheel of The Year. It is a time for us to let go of the old and look ahead to the new, to break out of negative habits and to begin a healthier way of being. We understand that in dark silence comes the whisperings of new beginnings. We reflect on nature’s cycle of life, death, and rebirth as it marks the end of the harvest season. Samhain is our spiritual new year.

Our family celebrates this festival together. The children begin to look forward to it as soon as the weather turns cooler because they are aware that this sabbat is special. If Samhain falls on a week day then we keep them out of school so that we can spend the day together my husband if needed will also take the day off from work. My sister, her boyfriend and children celebrate with us. This sabbat is a family affair.

Our celebration begins around nine o’clock in the morning with everyone arriving at our house for a leisurely breakfast that I lovingly prepare for everyone. We discuss our scheduled plans for the day and what the children have decided to wear for that evening as they will be donning costumes to pass out the treats to the anticipated Trick-or-Treaters.

After we are all finished eating breakfast and the dishes have been washed, dried and put away, we head out to the local park to collect twigs, leaves and acorns. These items will be used to craft Sentinels (our gaurdians) that we charge with the energy of protection. We do this each year removing the old Sentiels from above the doors and windows and replacing them with the new ones we craft that day.

From the park we visit a local produce stand where we chose at least two large pumpkins perfect for hollowing out and carving to look like protective spirits. We also purchase a few small gourds which we will leave at the graves of our ancestors. The boys and men happily discuss how they will do the pumpkin carving, what the faces should look like and what technique they will use, as they examine our chosen pumpkins.

This is a time to celebrate the lives of our ancestors, family members, friends, pets and others whom we loved and cared about who have transitioned. We welcome their visits for we view death as a natural end to life. With this belief in our minds we pay a visit to the cemetary where our (my sister and my) Grandmother, Grandfather and Meimei are buried. We visit each grave lighting a candle, burning some incense and extending an invitation to each loved one, to come to our home and join us that evening as we hold our ritual ancestoral dinner. We take a few moments to meditate and feel the energy that is so available to us at this time of year. We leave behind one of the small gourds that we purchased.

From there we travel home as we have a lot of things left to do. We need to set out the white candles in the first floor windows to mark the way for our invited spirit guests, set up our ancestor altar with photographs and personal items of those we wish to honor on this night, craft our Sentinels, carve our pumpkins, bake pumpkin bread, make hot apple cider and begin preparing dinner. Dinner usually consists of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn and dessert; my Grandmother’s favorite meal.

We set an extra chair and place setting at the table for our ancestors whom we invited to dinner. Our carved pumpkin becomes the centerpiece for our table. We are sure to enjoy dessert before the main entrée in honor of our Grandmother. Dessert first or you may not have room later, was her motto. During the meal The Remembrance Cup is passed from family member to family member as we recite our genealogy line. We also share memories that we have of each of our grandparents. We do this with love, honor and respect. The setting is left in place on the table overnight.

Once the ritual dinner is completed, the children scamper upstairs to change into their costumes. I prepare a Reading table for my guests. Earlier in the week I was sure to send out invitations to my Samhain Open House. This evening time and space are temporarily suspended; the Veil between here and there is the thinnest allowing those who have transitioned to communicate with those who are still on this physical plane. Knowing this I offer my friends, family members and clients Tarot Readings. I schedule appointments beginning at seven o’clock and ending around midnight. I offer them homemade pumpkin bread and the hot apple cider that we prepared that afternoon. It is always such an amazing experience.

Tags: holiday, sabbat, samhain

• Articles

Hearthkeeper October, 2010

Blessed be and welcome. Glad to see you here…Pull up a chair and grab a cuppa tea..

I have recently been reassessing my ideas about some thing and thinking very long on my definition of some thing.. Why?? Because I had someone send me a nastygram (well sort of) This person basically stated to me that it takes more than sending out some recipes and green ideas to be a kitchen witch. It takes spells and rituals that involve the kitchen and food. It takes chants and altars and candles.( I am not sending the whole nastygram)

Well all I can say is WOW…REALLY.  So I have studied and talked to some folks and looked deep within… and I disagree strongly with this. My opinion is( and I do hate opinions…) to be a Kitchen Witch you need to be centered on your home and hearth, on cooking with the intent to make your family strong, safe, healthy and balanced, on maintaining a happy environment for God/dess and learning and an open environment that ideas and energy can flow.

I have taught many that being a witch is not all about the spellwork or the cool tools…it is about what you DO with your intentions and energies. When I cook I do not always chant over my sauce or light candle while making a cake.. but the intentions for health and protection goes into my sauce with my basil and my cake it baked with all the love and birthday wishes I can put in.. but I do not do this because I have to.. It is all in the make up of it. I LIVE this life… not just act it out. My intentions do not always NEED to be broadly acted out.. because they are ALWAYS there.

Now I know that I should not allow another persons opinion to bother or sway me. But I also do not want to slight all of you. I have been sending information and recipes that I would like to read about, things that would better my home and hearth and family, things that would make it cheaper for me to take care of my home and hearth.

If you all would like more kitchen spells and chants and spell work.. I can research it and write about it. You only need to let me know. The only requirement I have is that whatever you ask for MUST be kitchen or hearth, food or family. And I will do my level best to bring it to you.

And on that note I have a story to share with you .. It is all about perception… This story was shared with me.. and I wish to share it with you.. as I have shared it with many in the years since I received it. I credit Angel with the writing of this.. even though I have no idea who Angel is.

The Halloween Witch

Each year they parade her about … The traditional witch.
Misshapen green face, stringy scraps of hair,

and a toothless mouth beneath her disfigured nose.

Gnarled knobby fingers twisted into a claw,
protracting from a bent and twisted torso that lurches about on wobbly legs.
Most think this abject image to be the creation of a prejudiced mind, merely a Halloween caricature.

I disagree.

I believe this is how witches were really seen.
Consider that most witches were women, were abducted in the night,
and smuggled into dungeons or prisons under secrecy of darkness,
to be presented by the light of the day as a confessed witch.
Few, if any, saw a frightened, normal looking woman being dragged into a secret room filled with instruments of torture.

To be questioned until she confessed to anything that was suggested to her,
and to give names or whatever would stop the questions.

Crowds saw the aberration denounced to the world as a self-proclaimed witch.
As the witch was paraded through the town, en route to be burned, hanged, drowned, stoned, or disposed of in various other forms of Christian love…

All created to free and save her soul from her depraved body.

The crowds viewed the results of hours of torture.

The face, bruised and broke, by countless blows, bore a hue of sickly green.

The once warm and loving smile gone, Replaced by a grimace broken teeth and torn gums that leers beneath a battered, disfigured nose.

The disheveled hair conceals bleeding gaps of torn scalp from whence cruel hands had torn away lovely tresses.

Broken, twisted hands clutched the wagon for support.

Fractured fingers locked like groping claws to steady her broken body.

All resemblances of humanity gone.

This was truly a demon, a Satan, a witch.
I revere this Halloween crone and hold her sacred above all.

I honor her courage and listen to her warnings of the dark side of humanity.

Each year I shed tears of respect and remember her involuntary sacrifice in the name of religion.

Written by Angel 6/99

This story reminds us of those who were persecuted as witches though many were healers and midwives, women who owned land, and those who spoke out against the rules of the time.

This poem is not in any way intended to ‘bash” Christianity, it is simply a reference to the history that is fact based.

With these things in mind I hope you will remember the Halloween Witch, along with all the others who have gone before you.

Until next time

Blessed Home and Hearth

The Hearthkeeper

PS. If there is anything you would like to see here.. please email me at  thehearthkeeper@gmail.com

Tags: samhain, witch

• Articles

Administrator October, 2010

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, holiday, sabbat, samhain

• Correspondences

Anne Baird October, 2010

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

Kerry Morgan December, 2009

Tags: halloween, samhain

• Articles

Alison Shaffer November, 2009

The No-Time Before Beginning

We cannot always be rushing full speed ahead.

Druidry teaches us that there are cycles, seasons that turn over and shuffle through one another. At Samhain, summer’s end, we enter a time of darkness, before the rebirth of light on the winter solstice. Now is a time of dissolution, and sacrifice. And bad chest colds with persistent, aching cough. Amber and rusted-ruby bleed through the tree leaves along their brittle veins, and I notice how they scab around the torn edges of old holes chewed out by summer insects now sluggish or dead. Outside my window, rain shivers down through the evening fog and clings to every surface, and slips, and falls, and clings again; each leaf wavers limply in the breeze, damp but still shining, ablaze like the sun’s going-down. They are so devoted. They mimic her, like the rain; they fall. We are all going down, stepping gently into the dusk, into the coming dark.

Last year, I dreamt often of brilliant mountainsides, spattered with the reds, oranges and yellows of foliage. My dreams were suffused with autumn. I noticed the subtle shifts as the season moved, changes I had never noticed before. The blushing rouge at the beginning, like wounds or lips opening up here and there among the worn summer green, just beginning to spread from tree to tree. The quaking yellows and golds at the height of the season, the whole woods cut through by low, bright sunlight and seeming to glow, the limbs of trees dark like veins starting to show through a papery sky, reflected in the surface of half-hidden streams gliding through layers of yellow leaves that had already fallen. And then, even towards the end, how beautiful and subtle the browns became, some deep like wet bark, some light and feathery like sheaves of wheat or rustling like straw, the ochre, russet, everything in sepia tones. There was a stand of sycamores outside the local library that everyday seemed to have life, each day different, moods that hesitated and seemed to revise themselves shyly, while no one was looking. Sometimes they were bright against the backdrop of concrete buildings and city skyline, sometimes faded and gentle, hardly distinguishable, but quiet and present. It would be hard to explain how these sycamores alone seemed to be, for the first time, so real to me, so very much alive.

This autumn, I’ve spent too much time sick in bed. The wind elbows its way through the darkening evening like a disgruntled old man too proud to admit he feels ignored and forgotten. I have missed too many sunsets; I have slept restlessly, wheezing, through too many dawns. The brilliance and color I remember from last year? Replaced with cold-shouldered windows rattling unkindly against every draft, and a body that just cannot find a comfortable position amidst piles of pillows and layers of blankets. Sometimes, autumn is not romantic, or brilliant, or even eerie with the smell of old blood, the smell of ancient slaughter to thin the herds for winter, the smell of our ancestors, the memory of their warm bodies moving and sweating and churning just on the other side of the thinning gossamer veil between the worlds. Sometimes, autumn is dull and cramped, a voiceless throat and the practical drug store necessities.

We spend a lot of energy these days trying not to be sad, trying to avoid the risk of becoming sad, or sick, or vulnerable in any way. We do our best to placate, ameliorate, mitigate. We believe in a steady, if not perfect, state of health and happiness, despite the evidence, despite the change and flux that surrounds us constantly.

Sometimes, what we really need to learn is how to walk through sickness, and sadness, and come out the other side. Not singing or laughing, perhaps, but mindful and fully present all the same. We need to learn that this pressing onward, this walking through the thick of it, the heavy darkness, dense with grief and dissolution–this process is not beautiful, or romantic. Sometimes it is annoying and a bit mucous, and there is no moment when suddenly the way is clear and everything resolves into celebration and relief. Sometimes, we simply recover, gradually, so slowly that we barely notice, each day a little less difficult, each night a little easier to sleep through.

??

So I’m less-than-perfect tonight, with a sore throat and a headache that makes concentration difficult, let alone philosophy or spiritual musing. And I am wistful for last fall, for the home in that season I left in order to make a new home on the other side of sickness and frustration. But we make homes of our bodies all the same, in all their imperfections, as we make our homes in the landscape with its cycles and rhythms, its withering and renewal. But perhaps this is why birth, too, is so amazing — that we can make of our very bodies a home for an innocent new being — that, like those physical houses constructed out of sacrificed trees and broken stones, we can build that kind of sanctuary. We gestate within these old bodies a new self, like the god descending into the dark womb to wait the rebirth of light. A warm hearth, a place from which new happiness on this side of loss and hardship can begin again. Even when we have passed through illness and loneliness, been shaped by them and scarred by them, that we can still become a bridge to the new, to the newly born, to the beginning.

Now is a time of dissolution, and sacrifice. Now is the no-time, the end of one year, before another begins. We press on, through the darkness, the breath of our ancestors barely stirring us. The rain falls, in imitation of the leaves, the leaves who slide loose and fall as the sun goes down.

Blessings, readers, on this Samhain. See you on the other side.

Tags: druid, 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

Hearthkeeper October, 2009

Blessed Samhain all of you and Blessed Beltane for those in the Southern Hemi. Wow has it really been a year… I started writing these article last October.. and how scared I was that they would bomb… but you seem to like them and I enjoy writing them for you..  so here we go..

Here is some basic Samhain correspondences to work with

Oct. 31st – Samhain (All Hallow’s Eve)

Altar Decorations: Pumpkins, gourds, seasonal fruits and flowers, a statue of the Triple Goddess in her Crone phase, broom, acorns.

Herbs:, dittany, flax, heather, mandrake, mullein, oak leaves, sage and straw, mugwort.

Spices: Thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper,  poultry seasoning

Incense: sage, apple, mint, nutmeg

Gods & Goddess’: The Crone, Hecate (fertility, moon-magic, protectress of all Witches), Morrigan (Celtic Goddess of death), Cernunnos (Celtic fertility God) and Osiris (Egyptian God who represents death and rebirth).

Colors: Black, Orange, Red, White

Gemstones: onyx, obsidian, hematite

Food: Apples, Pumpkin pie, nuts, cranberry(scones or muffins), ale, cider, mugwort tea, mead and meat

Tree: Birch, oak, alder and walnut

This Sabbat as well as the whole month of October is a time of change. The veil is thinning and contact with our ancestors is becoming easier and divinations of all kinds seem to work better now. It is customary to set an extra place at your supper table on Samhain Eve in honor of the departed. This is not a scary time, rather a time when the veil is thin and we can spend time with the spirits in warmth and love.

But this is also a time for the living. A time to prepare for the cold season, harvest the last of the summer crops and save them for next year, a time for family and friends to become closer, planning inside activities to enjoy while it snows; a time for cleaning and settling in, for putting away the summer and storing for next year.

So we will start here… contacting the ancestors and go on from there

Samhain Meditation

To prepare for this meditation, have your cauldron or bowl ready.

If you will be outdoors have small sticks that you can light for a fire in the cauldron.

If indoors, a votive, and a fire brick to put under your cauldron.

Place paper and pen near the cauldron.

Visualize yourself walking in a place of nature. This may be a place you already know, or it may be somewhere you create in your mind. Be aware of the crispness of autumn, the chill in the air, the changing colors of the leaves, the seeds that fall from dying flowers, the pine cones and acorns underfoot. As you walk, you come to a stone circle with a low stone altar with a large cauldron sitting on it in the center. On the altar you see articles that you know belonged to, your deceased ancestors, family members, and friends.

Next to the cauldron is a small collection of wood ready to be lit. Light the fire. (Or candle, if indoors).

This is your opportunity to contact anyone from your family, or among your friends, that you wish. Think of why you want to contact them. Is there any unfinished business with anyone that you would like to take care of now? Do you wish to ask forgiveness of anyone? Is there someone you need to forgive? Do you want to tell someone how much you love them and miss them? Do you wish to ask for help or guidance?

Next to the cauldron you see paper and pen. Sit quietly, take your time, and write letter. Allow yourself to experience any emotions that arise as you do this. When you have finished your letter or letters, burn them in the cauldron. As the flame turns them into smoke, know that as the smoke rises it carries your message. (If indoors, be careful).

Take a few more minutes to sit quietly before the cauldron. The cauldron represents the womb of the earth,  to which we return in death to await rebirth. Gaze into it. This is a time to receive messages. Take your time. You may have a thought, or image, come into your mind. You may receive the answer to a question, or be given some wise advice. You may not get your answer right now, it may take a few hours or even days for you to understand.

When you are ready to leave thank your ancestors for the help they have given, tell them you love them and know they will be there for you always.. Leave the circle, returning by the same path you took before. Take the blessings of the cauldron of life and rebirth with you.

Samhain for Family & Friends

This is a non-ritual way to celebrate Samhain, and children can join in.

You will need:

A candle for each individual to be remembered (small birthday candles or tea lights to be very effective)

A cauldron or other fireproof container filled with sand

A photograph or other mementos, or the name of each individual written on

paper

Apples

Food including pumpkin soup, pie, and so on

Tarot cards, scrying tools, and other divination tools.

Push each candle into the sand-filled container ,light a candle for each individual to be remembered. Place the name, photos, a poem, or other memento against the container of candles. When all are done, welcome the family members that have passed to come and share the feast with you.

After, when everyone is full, read poems, play music, sing, or whatever you like to entertain each other. Any children present may want to put on impromptu plays or read their own poems aloud.

Read tarot cards or practice other forms of divination.

Children may want to use an apple cut in half to make pictures, when dried you can place the names of each remembered family member in each apple..

Here is a Blessing for this sabbat.

Samhain Blessing
May the ancestors deliver blessings on you and yours…

May the New Year bear great fruits for you…
May your granted wishes be as many as the seeds falling from the maple…

May the slide into darkness bring you comfort and peace…
May the memories of what has been keep you strong for what is to be…
May this Samhain cleanse your heart, your soul, and your mind!

Until next time

Blessed Home and Hearth

The Hearthkeeper

Tags: kitchen, samhain, witch

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