As the Veil Thins

As the days grow closer to Samhain I can feel it. I awoke this morning with a cheerful disposition and found that it was pleasantly foggy and misty outside. Just my kind of morning. That is one thing I miss about being up north in Washington, the cool mornings where curling up with a warm tasty beverage and reading were the thing to do. However, rather than reading books this year I have been reading up on Samhain traditions and am trying to plan another ritual. However, this year's ritual will not be as extravagant as last year's was due to the confined quarters in which I currently reside. I don't know how well the roommates would respond to me doing a full on ritual and I wouldn't be able to have the privacy or quiet I would need for such an undertaking. So the most I am going for will be meditating on my loved ones who have passed, creating a small altar for them, most likely baking something, and doing a tarot reading.

Speaking of rituals, I actually came across and new incense that's perfect for rituals. It's the Sapphire—Devotion one from Magnifiscents. It blends wonderful scents of sandalwood, clove, benzoin, and spices that reminds me of my favorite occult shop. Ideally I'd love to make my own incense, but f that's not an option, this one is a great filler. Also sandalwood is used for purification, clove is useful for vision and cleansing, benzoin provides focus, and spices add to the mystery of the divine. I also believe that incense is a great way to represent air and to induce meditation.

If I don't write again, have a blessed Samhain.

Lesons From Last Night

The ritual I performed last night was eye opening. I learned a few very important lessons about conducting a ritual that I need to work on.

First off—plan your ritual ahead of time! I had a general idea last night of what I wanted to do, but the exact order was not planned out and found myself constantly going outside my circle to get something I forgot to place inside the circle before I started. I'm sure this alone aded to the overall length of such a simple ritual.

Second, I need to rehearse my wording. I'm still learning and growing and have not yet memorized the invocations and wording or written my own ritual. I kept tripping over my own words and invoking the same things over and over while forgetting other. This too added to the length of the ritual.

The third things was to have a raised up working space. I'm currently using a try placed on a cloth on the ground to define my scared working space. While I have no issue sitting on the ground for the ritual, bending over everything all the time took it's toll on my back. Even a small, low table would work and make doing magical work more efficient.

My Samhain Altar

Lastly, I found that I need to test how any herbs I use will burn before I burn them. I wrote down negative aspects I wished to be gone in the coming year on bay leaves and attempted to burn them. The leaves didn't burn well and they smelled atrocious. I ended up grinding up my leaves, aded some patchuli and put that mixure in the fire this morning (we heat the house with a wood stove.)

I feel that overall my ritual last night was a resounding success and something much needed. It has given me strength and motivation, both things I was lacking in recent weeks.

May the Lady and Lord watch over us all in the new year!

A Hallowed Eve

My Cat-o-Lantern

This year I have felt a strong yearning to participate in Samhain rituals and observances. I've felt it very keenly for the past few weeks, even before my move. I think it is a way of my spirit telling me that it needs to realign itself with the natural world and start the new year with a grounded perspective. As a result I've been doing some Samhain research and looking for ways I can celebrate it in my highly Catholic parents' house without offending my mom who blames people falling away from the Church as a result of "new age" and "occult" ideas. I already had to fend her off years ago and try as I might  I have yet to properly educate her on the differences between "new age," "occult" and "paganism."

My ideas so far are consisting of:

• a private ritual in my room this evening
• baking pumpkin bread as a celebration of the harvest
• placing candles in my window to guide spirits on their way
• offering apple cider
• scrying, tarot reading and/or runecasting
• making incense or bath salts for the sabbat

I would love to dress up, but I don't have a costume and my silly stupid game has an event I'm hosting at 7pm tonight. That and I told we don't get many trick-or-treaters around here so I'm not too sure of what will be going on around here this evening.

Whatever your plans for Samhain are I hope you fair well this hallowed eve.