Blessings.

This year is espicially difficult, for many of us, yet, still remember to Celebrate this End of the year for us..

Thusfar, simple fall reminders are in my home, but Spiced Pumkin candles are burning, thus lifting my spirits...

I shall get the corn stalks, and indian corn soon...and of course Jack o lanterns will be burning brightly, to light the path of Passed Loved ones.

Thoughts?


Love, LadyP

I would generally have a nice meal with friends with relevant grub.. my own personal touch that I do every year is to write letters to those that I have lost over the years, tell them how everyone is here, bring them up to date on anything that I may feel they would be interested in, express how I felt/feel for them and generally acknowledge them and the role that thay played in my life. I also ask them to watch over me and mine. I then burn the letters in a small ritual, and dedicate the letters to the individuals.

This year as well as the above I am going to Charleville Castle on the eve of Halloween... looking forward to having the bejeepers scared out of me and maybe having a natter with the odd spirit!

Well this is easy for me to answer as I did it already over at the Moot

So I'll just re-post it here:

erm well this poem sums up how I interpret Samhain

Samhain Blessing

Samhain blessings to one and all,
Food in the larder, stock in the stall.
For now's the time of Nature's rest,
Regains her strength so we'll be blessed,
With fields of gold and wondrous fruits,
That follow on from Spring's new shoots.
So store the harvest and cure the meat,
Then through the winter we shall eat.

Samhain when the veil grows thin,
A time for pause and rememberin'.
Now spirits walk the land once more,
So leave some food beside your door.
Honour the passed; give them their due,
And they will cause no harm to you.
The seasons turn and leaves now fall.
Samhain blessings to one and all.


I see it as the third and final (and bloody) Harvest Festival, where the last of the fruit and veg crops are dug up and the animals who wouldn't be kept alive through the winter are converted into preserved commodities to help you through the harsh times of Winter ahead.

Well that is if the only crop I had wasn't just apples and the only livestock in the garden weren't rampant foxes and the odd shrew.

I see it as the time when Nature settles down to rest after the trials of delivering a harvest and breeding all those new animals and the odd human (although I don't think we need that much help)

Its also the time when the spirits of the past may revisit the living (or within my own spiritual POV the essences of the past may take on new transient forms - don't ask me why, it could just be akin to the annual outing in an old folks home, though more likely it's been shaped by the expectations and rituals of man through the past) and as such it is a time to remember those who have passed on and ensure they remain alive within the memory of those still living.

Lastly its the turning again of the Wheel through the seasons- though while I see it as the end of Summer I don't see it as the New Year - that's Midwinter for me.


So how do I celebrate?

I bake apple pies - I used to take them into work and share

I hold a ritual (I invite ancestral spirits and those of the house to join me) where I toast with apple juice or cider (cider this year I think ) and contemplate the turn of the Wheel from Summer's End to Autumn

I give thanks for the provisions throughout the Summer (even if mostly by supermarket) and that we have sufficient food throughout the dark times ahead

I recite the names of those who have passed in the passed year, family, friends and others who I hold in respect. I also recite a (growing ) list of those I feel should be remembered though they may have passed years since, I pause after each name and comtemplate what made them 'special'.

I leave an offering at my step of half my ritual toast and a drop of the hard stuff in my offering dish for the house (and any other) spirits inside - they used to like brandy, but now seem to be showing a preference for Bells


Hope that throws up something useful

Kev - never to be known not to push his poetry

Cos, thanks, you saved me a lot of typing!

My celebrations will be very similar to yours but I tend to leave the Bells for the calendar New Year.

However, the one difference is that though I'll be doing the apple pie, I'll not be doing that until the next day when I celebrate the Pomonalia, doing various "appley" things - drying apples and making decorations to hang round the house, making apple pies, and I dare say there'll be a bit of cider offered and consumed as well...

bells, I hear bells all the time, must be the hat

Oh they get another dibbings at Midwinter as that's my new Year time

Somehow I had a feeling you'd be doing appley things on the first Pomona

K