Witches New Year
The Feast of the Dead
Nights are longer, the air is colder, and spooky stories are everywhere. It’s that time again my witches our most holy day Halloween/Samhain (end of summer). Most individuals will be sucked into the mundane world celebrating a pagan tradition without even knowing. Not us, we may still dress up and take our children trick a treating but The Witches New Year is of great importance. The Celtics taught us to offer food to the dead and light candles in our windows to guide them on their journey. It is said a magickal event happens during this harvest causing a thinning of the veil between our world and the dead allowing for better communication.
This holiday is very old and was adopted by the Christians as All Saints Day but instead of embracing the dead they feared it. Taking strange precautions such as dressing up in costumes or displaying Jack-O-Lanterns to help protect them.
Samhain can be celebrated by honoring our ancestors and decorating our altar to go along with the fall season. It is also perfect night for candle magick, astral projection, and divination. For the New Year workings let go of anything that may restrict you such as fear, bad habits, well you don’t want to carry that into the New Year now. Many witches will take a broom they made and literally sweep away the past year.
Correspondences from the website http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/the_wheel_of_the_year/samhain.asp
SYMBOL: Black cat, jack o 'lantern, bat, ghost, scarecrow, waning moon. GODDESSES: Crone, all crone goddesses, Cerridwen, Hecate, Hel, Oya, the Morrigan, Lilith, Kali, Ishtar, Arianrhod, Rhiannon, Tlazoteotl, Nephthys, Persephone, Beansidhe (Banshee), Inanna, Baba Yaga, Isis, Pomona and Cailleach Beara (Brigid's crone aspect), who is reborn this night.
GODS: Osiris, the Horned God, Herne the Hunter, Cernunnos, Anubis, Odin, Bran, death gods, dying and rising gods.
INCENSE: Copal, sandalwood, mastic resin, benzoin, sweetgrass, wormwood: to get the sight, to see the spirits of the returning dead.
CANDLES: New candles for the new year: black, orange, autumn colors, or black candles for the Lord and the old year, white candles for the Lady and the new year.
TOOLS: Besom, to sweep out the old year and any negativity it had. Cauldron, for transformation.
Divination tools: Tarot cards, scrying bowl, rune stones, pendulum, mirror, etc.
PLANT: Pumpkin, apple, grain, pomegranate, mugwort, wormwood, Dittany of Crete, acorn, oak leaf, gourds, root vegetables, rosemary (for remembrance).
STONE: Obsidian, carnelian, onyx, smoky quartz, jet, bloodstone.
ANIMAL: Bat, black cat, owl.
ALTAR DECORATIONS: Autumn leaves, fall flowers, pomegranates, apples, pumpkins, ears of corn, sprays of grain, corn dollies, gourds, nuts, seeds, acorns, chestnuts and images of ancestors are all appropriate. Use whatever is in season where you live, whatever feels right and looks good to you.
FOOD: Gingerbread, freshly roasted nuts, nut breads, anything made with apples or pumpkin, meat (especially bacon), doughnuts, popcorn, cakes with lucky tokens in them, and red foods because the ancients held them sacred to the dead. DRINK: Mead, apple cider, mulled cider, mulled wine.
CELEBRATE: Masks, costumes - trick-or-treating - feasting and partying to defy the coming darkness (bob for apples, roast nuts, pop popcorn) - harvest feasts - rituals to honor the dead - Witches' Ball.
