‘Tis the Season of the Witch

Autum, especially October is known as the Season of the Witch.

What’s not to love about this time of year. Mother nature treats us to the most glorious colours from reds, to oranges to golds, with a few greens dotted about here and there. The sun sets and sun rises can be amazing, looking like someone has got carried away with a paintbox, smearing vivid blue with pink, orange and red.

For most Witches it is also an amazing time to go forraging, nuts, berries and rose hips are abound. However, this year I have learnt not to open the green husks of walnuts with my thumbnails!! I have had brown stained thumbs and what looks like very dirty thumbnails (that not even bleach can remove) for a couple of weeks now lol.

The end of the lavender season means the long stems and dried flowers are perfect for making Lavender wands, before the plants get cut back. Lots of cuttings means lots of witchy crafting from all sorts of plants. If you are lucky enough to live near woods or even just a few trees, you can often find fallen branches. Perfect for making brooms, staffs or wands. Conkers can be used to make a natural laudry detergent. The list goes on.

As the evenings draw in and it gets colder, I love snuggling up in warm jumpers or under the sofa blanket with a hot drink. I am currently using the longer evenings to sit and crochet a blanket in front of the TV.

The festival of Samhain (more often known now as Halloween) on October 31st, is also known as the Witches New Year. Most Witches are eagerly looking forward to this as far back as the beginning of September. It’s a time of connection, for celebrating and remembering those who we have lost from ths world.

As with many festivals and traditions, Samhain can be traced back to the Celtic Druids. The Celts have been around a few thousand years (since c1200BC). The original practices of Druid priests, such as predicting the health of the community or figuring out how to cure an illness, were later associated with witchcraft.

The Celts believed that Samhain, was the night that the veil between the spirit realm and the living was at its thinnest, allowing spirits to cross the veil. Turnips were crudely carved into grusome faces by many people and hot embers from their fire were put inside the face, causing it to glow eerily to frighten the spirits away. Others would leave out sweet treats for the spirits in the hopes this would appease them so they would leave them alone.

Later when the old pagan ways were merged with the new Christain beliefs, the original wise woman and healers were labeled as evil hags or witches. It was thought that the Witches also came out at Samhain and the above traditions would keep the ordinary folk safe from them too. It was believed that the Witches would be flying around on this night and could interact with the spirits. Witches were also thought to be able to turn them selves into a black cat, a spider or a bat when they needed to hide, escape or spy on others.

These are the origins of what we now know as Halloween, The modern practice of carving pumpkins (much easier than turnips) with a candle placed inside, hanging up decorations of spiders and bats, represents the original idea of scaring off the bad spirits. Children going out Trick or Treating wearing ghost, witch or other gruesome costumes and receiving treats, represents the home owners warding away the spirits or evil creatures with sweet treats.

Young women believed they could find out who their future husband was at Halloween. Some would look in a mirror at midnight as it was said your future husbnd would appear over your shoulder. Peeling an apple in one long coil and throwing it over your shoulder was believed to show you your future husband’s initials by the way the peel fell. There were lots of other practices or parlour games based around this theme, many long forgotten now. Other young ladies would seek out a fortune teller on this night to find out what lay in store for them.

Witches will usually set up a Samhain altar, often placing items or pictures of departed love ones on the altar to honour them. Some will hold a Dumb Supper, setting a place at the table for deceased loved ones and eating the meal in silence in their honour. Many Witches practice divination on this night when the veil is thought to be at his thinnest.

Meanwhile…. until Samhain arrives, I am enjoying the sunsets, the fabulous colours of the turning leaves and the crisp cold mornings before the warmth of the autum sun. I am also enjoying plenty of crafting, getting ready for both Samhain and Yule, after all ‘Tis the Season of the Witch!

You may also like: The Festival of Samhain

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