Using a Crystal Ball As the Wheel of the Year approaches Samhain and the days grow dark and the nights long, it becomes the time for scrying. This is not something that can be done in the brightness of a hot summer day. This is for the mystery of night and the dark. Even summer nights can be too alive with light for a good scrying session. But the cloudy darkness of October and November nights – the early fall of evening and the reluctant rise of the autumnal sun – makes for the best time to practice those arts that require the dark. Scrying, whether with a bowl of…

Ancestor Altar Merry meet. As Samhain approaches, thoughts turn to honoring the ancestors. It is a common practice to create an altar to recognize the long line of descendants that came before. With the veil thin between our world and theirs, we take time to sit with those who have departed, welcoming them back and listening for their messages. There’s no one way to make an ancestor altar; it can be as simple as a photograph and a cup of tea or large and elaborate with pictures, mementos, candles and flowers. Until this year, I would put add a photograph of my parents and their parents taken at my parent’s…