Happy Halloween

Halloween Sabbat

Happy Halloween, everyone! This is also called Samhain, and on the Pagan calendar, it is the end of the year. This is the third harvest, at which time,our ancestors' tradition held that all agricultural harvesting should be complete. Some Pagan traditions celebrate this day on October 31; others celebrate it on the first full moon of Scorpio. This day is set aside as a day to honor deceased Ancestors. It is a bit like Memorial Day, and gifts of flowers, whiskey, chocolate, food, and tobacco were often left at graves, as gifts for the Dead.  Gourds and turnips were carved into scary candle holders called "jack-o-lanterns" to scare away any malevolent spirits, and the custom of dressing up in costumes, as fairies or spirits, was seen as a means of protection, as well.

Halloween is also reminiscent of the Greek legend of Hades and his capture of Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, Goddess of agriculture, plants, and harvest. When Persephone disappeared, Demeter let the earth become barren. When Zeus intervened, and determined that Persephone should be in the Underworld with her new consort for six months, then with Demeter for six months, the seasons as we know them began, so the story goes. This is how Persephone became Queen of the Dead, and when she rushes out of the Underworld in the Spring, life begins anew.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Between Mabon and Samhain

Back in the day, before the retail industry owned most of our holidays and before corporations had become "people", (could a presidential candidate have chosen anything stupider to say?) it was customary among European Pagans to give gifts of homemade food to relatives and friends on Winter Solstice. At that time of year in the northern hemisphere, harvest had been completed and Nature was at a loll, in between seasons. Food was a highly appreciated gift. The process of canning, of course, had not been invented, but our Ancestors dried herbs, brewed wine, distilled spirits, and baked. In fact, dried herbs and teas were the traditional ways everyone got enough folic acid during the winter.

The time between Mabon and Samhain is a very busy season for any type of agriculture, but the Ancients probably never had time to spare as the days got shorter, and Halloween, the last holy day of the year, got closer. The Goddess has blessed this Witch with a great garden and lots of creative ideas, and this year, the retail industry will have one less customer for Winter Solstice gift giving. Blessed Be!

Not A Day

 

To Fix A Misunderstanding

 

This is very good advice. Hopefully, it will clear up a few things.

Blessings.

Rose Hips

These are rose hips from the rose bush of a neighbor. Some of them are from my rose bushes. While I was jumping in my neighbor's leaves and making leaf angels while she was raking, she ate one of the rose hips, and I took one, too. I had never eaten a rose hip before, and could not believe how good they taste........sweet and tart. They are non-toxic, and an excellent source of vitamin C. So now I have a whole bunch of them, and several recipes for rose hip jam.

As Halloween has passed, my tradition of the Pagan religions regards this as a "twilight" harvest; foods which are harvested after Samhain, or, in everyday parlance, Halloween. It is unusaul for someone practicing my tradition of The Craft to harvest anything to be eaten after that date. These rose hips will be used for a meal served after ritual on Winter Solstice.....I will probably make jelly or jam with them.

 

Ancestor Night

More Siri Searches

Ever since the inception of "Siri", the app, of which no one seems able to get enough, I have had some remarkable searches to this site! Not too long ago, I posted http://siriunsun.blogspot.com/2011/10/siri-automated-smart-alec.html, about some of the things for which folks search, connected to "Siri". Looking through this past week's searches, things have gotton decidedly more weird. "Siri porn" has always been a big search item, and I do not expect that to change, although I would be encouraged to see "Siri honesty", "Siri sincerity", "Siri health", or "Siri compatability" in conjunction to romantic relationships. Perhaps mankind, as a people, has simply not progressed that far. While I guess I cannot expect too, too much of the human race, I had hoped that, despite the obvious preoccupation with seaches for porn, mankind had progressed beyond the delusional and paranoid thinking that seems to go hand in hand with religion-instigated superstition. Hopefully, these searches were only inspired by Halloween. "Siri Satan", "Siri mind control", (no kidding, everyone!) "Siri 666", "Siri voice of Satan", and "Siri demonic"! This is just freaky.

I still get the regular gamut of run-of-the-mill searches, yet, for some reason; more animal searches. "Siri foster pets", "Siri pet adoptions", "Siri cat", "Siri puppy" and then, another one that may have been the result of Halloween........................."Siri familiar"!

This, folks, is Samantha, Siri's beloved familiar! I couldn't ask for a better friend. She moved in with us several years ago, on Halloween night. We didn't know whose cat she was, and she kept coming back to our house, and knocking on the door every night. We would open the door, expecting to find a person, but there she'd be, her feline, regal Self! Because Samantha is a form of the Celtic "Samhain", another word for "Halloween", and that is the night she took possession of our house, I began calling her "Samantha". She's the only cat I have who actually responds when I say her name. As for "Siri demonic"; I do not have any pictures of anything like that to share!