Any Witches Here Part 4 [Edited by MNHQ]

[speakout]

Or Wiccans. or Pagans? Or anyone who is interested in a magical path or feels some magical stirrings.

A place for support, learning, swapping ideas and magical inspiration

All welcome.

@TooManyPaws, thank you, that is sp helpful! I'm going to try these things.

The pendulum sounds really interesting too.

@GruciusMalfoy if you'd like to PM me about Tarot go right ahead I've been practising it for 15 years

Hello everyone
Marking my place for tomorrow , glad I saw the new thread .
I've work very early in the morning and I must be sensible and not read the whole thread right now .

@Pawnee, thanks so much! I will definitely have questions, I'll PM you later today.

I'm up with the larks this morning, got to love the clock change.

Morning witchy ones.

I am up early too, although made myself a coffee and back to bed now!

A full house here this weekend, but OH and I will sneak out early to do some shopping soon, and have breakfast somewhere.
Have to get back to take my mother to church ( she lives with us), she has been instructed lately about the dangers of Halloween.
Difficult as DD home from University this weekend , been up to the loft and brought down boxes of Halloween decorations, so the house is full of flying bats, my broomstick, pumpkins.
Not to mention my increasing paraphernalia of spell kits, smudge sprays, hundreds of crystals, home made candles, herbs, etc. It;s getting too much to hide.
And my mother continues to have weekly prayer meetings- I have one room that I try to keep free of paraphernalia, although the keen christian eye may notice my candles, drying herbs and hare prints.

And I have my sister visiting from abroad nest Halloween - yikes!!
She is fierce Baptist/Pentecostal, spend her days hunting for Satan's work.

I could write a book!!

Oh speakout, that sounds stressful! It's awful to have to hide the tools of your practice, but I understand why. My family are Catholic, the older generation extremely so. They take Halloween as a harmless secular celebration, but would be seriously against a family member practising paganism. It's hurtful to hear people speaking of Halloween/Samhain observances as dangerous. I hope you're able to celebrate in a way that feels right to you.

GruciusMalfoy

Thank you. It is a little irritating. We live in a society where religious respect is demanded. Yet somehow it is OK to call paganism wicked or sinful or evil.
I don't get majorly worked up about it, as I'm not the one living in fear.

The most amazing autumn morning. Full sun, not a breath of wind, the trees are in full splendour.
I have lit a candle in thanks at this blessing.
I am about to make some minestrone soup for lunch, some love magic for all the family to eat.

@speakout when i was younger my father (who came from an area well known for its religious intolerance) always used to say to us “to thine own self be true”. As a small child I never really understood what he meant.

You have your path. Your mother has hers.
It is admirable that out of respect for another’s beliefs you have offered hospitality to the church group - or put another way you have given your time and energy, a peaceful space and nourishment for the spiritual development of others. Much like this thread. 😊

GeeIneverthoughtofthat

Thank you. And a lovely sentiment "“to thine own self be true”". Not sure that organised religion always upholds that idea though.

I have been rummaging through a trunk this morning and came across my very first grimoire, I started it 35 years ago. So full of lovely things, spells, incense blends, poetry, thoughts and musings. I don't use one much these days, I confine things to memory mostly, but a lovely keepsake and a treasured find.

“to thine own self be true” the only place I've heard something near that, although I remembered it as exactly that, is in the film Babe.

Have a fabulous day everyone, looking good here for a fair I'm about to set off to.

speakout, memories just appear when you need them, enjoy every minute of reverie and retrospection

All this fuss over Halloween seems very odd to me and comparatively recent, perhaps another US import. My father was CofS, my mother CofE, and I went to a CofE primary in a Muslim country, followed by a rather high Anglican boarding school in England. I later ran the cub pack in a CofS scout group. We always had Halloween parties and decorations. Even at secondary where it was common for those of us confirmed to go to pre-breakfast communion on holy days, it was seen as fun and poking fun at death and so on before the seriousness of All Saints Day, All Souls Day and then Remembrance Day.

We, in the 80s, would have a small school disco and that was that. I always remember far more emphasis on Remembrance of the Dead than anything else in High School

Practically no one trick or treated and most people found it frightfully American
But we are becoming more American, look how the "Leavers Ball" is now "Prom"

Halloween was a big thing when I was a child in the 60s, but I am in Scotland. We would go around "guising", dressing up and knocking at neighbours doors for sweets.

My gran was born in 1890 and she did the same thing back then, would dress up as a witch or ghost and do the rounds of neighbours houses.

@speakout is the link, possibly, people who would have 'guised' settling in New England?

I am guessing yes.

Morning everyone. A wet and cold morning here, feels really wintry all of a sudden.

I'm feeling totally energised following yesterday's healing cacao ceremony. Feel so privileged to have been able to take part and be with such an amazing group of women. I feel like somethings shifting inside me, I've got all this energy and making new connections. Just need to work out how best to channel it!

I have spent 4 hours carving pumpkins! It's for a local venue we support, I hadn't intended to do that much work but others couldn't come due to very understandable circumstances. I've come home with a bag full of cardboard bats to string up! It's actually quite nice to become involved in something like this. They're holding a zombie walk before a part on Weds but I am not sure I will make the event itself.

Home now and got the Rayburn stoked up. Feel like making a warming winter soup for dinner.

Hello all. I'm feeling much better today - the Fall change of the clocks always makes me feel a bit more grounded.

I've been making some preparations for Samhain, and just cosying up the house in general.

I might get my cards out tonight and see what stories they want me to hear.

queenrollo

How lovely. I have bee out buying spooky sweets for Wednesday- we get 40-50 children at the door, DD has decorated the porch, I have a cauldron for my sweets.
Always a fun night.

MawkishTwaddle

What a lovely fireplace- is it gas? I have a flue but no chimney- I would love a home with a fire.

There's a nice Samhain solitary ritual here, for anyone who is wondering how to build their own:
www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbeckett/2014/10/samhain-a-solitary-ritual.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=FBCP-PAG&utm_content=johnbeckett

speakout, could you get a wood burning stove? I have the metal pipe up my chimney but my friend just has hers going up through the roof as she doesn't have any chimneys in her 1970s house.

Yes, speakout, it's gas. I had a wood burner in my last house, and it was lovely but this is so much easier and cleaner.