I really don’t have much to say. I just wanted to wish all my readers a happy winter solstice! I wish I had more experience with Sabbats, but I don’t. I’m a newbie to Wicca (five months old) and have been reading as much on it as I can. Since my family isn’t Wiccan, we don’t have any family traditions, but next year I’m going to try to put some in.

I didn’t have time this year with schoolwork (as if that would be better next year) and my sister doing her volunteer work. I’m going to be doing the ritual suggested by Wicca Spirituality.

Again, happy Yule!

The holiday of Yule takes place on the winter solstice, the shortest day and the darkest night of the year.  On the calendar the date is December 21, but this year the actual solstice falls today (the general calendars found in stores don’t exactly pay attention to astrological or astronomical calendars and dates).

The Yule holiday celebrates the return of the God after His death at Samhain (secular: Halloween).  The Goddess gives birth to the God, who is represented by the sun, after the Yule night has passed.  And so the God is reborn from a virgin Goddess.  Sound familiar?  It’s a theme found in a number of other religious traditions, both the rebirth scenario and the virgin birth.

One of the old traditions of Yule was lighting candles and leaving lights on through the night to lure back the sun in the morning.  In ancient times, the winter was harsher than it is for us now.  Those people didn’t have heating other than their fire and the sun’s warmth in the daytime.  Danger was everywhere, and the cold sapped strength and happiness from people’s souls.  On the longest night of the year, people hoped the sun would return the next morning but they didn’t necessarily have any guarantee that it would–they didn’t have science to tell them that the sun would still be there, would still burn, even after the longest night.  Some of the more advanced cultures, such as the ancient Greeks, did have some astronomical knowledge, and the solstice celebrations were symbolic rather than factual, while for other cultures the ceremonies were factual rather than symbolic.  Leaving lights or flames on through the night provided hope to the people and lured back the sunlight.

Other traditions of Yule include wreaths, trees, giving gifts, and bells.  Wreaths are symbolic of the Wheel of the Year because there is no beginning or end to the wreath, just as the Wheel of the Year has no beginning or end.  The hanging of wreaths on Yule is a Scandinavian tradition, for whom Yule was also the new year.  The wreaths were made from winter plants, pinecones, berries, even twigs to add stability.  Trees, a prevalent and favorite tradition in modern culture, originated in a number of areas, including Germany, Scandinavian countries, and from the Celts.  The evergreen trees they brought inside symbolized the hope for the sun’s returning influence on the earth, turning the earth green again every spring after the solstice, and the eternal aspect of the Goddess, as evergreens do not die like deciduous trees do.

Bells come from the Norse who used them to frighten away the powers of darkness and any dark influences that come to the fore on the darkest night of the year, and also used bells to welcome the dawn and the sun on Yule morning.  We still use bells today through the images of sleigh bells and jingle bells.  Gift giving, a VERY popular tradition today, was a tradition of counteracting the darkness and harshness of those ancient winters, of lifting the spirits and having something to celebrate and find joy in when the world around them was dark and depressing.

Ways to celebrate the Yule holiday include: meditation on the previous year and the coming year, meditation on the meaning of the holiday, celebrating with friends and family, lighting candles in honor of the sun, decorating a Yule (Christmas) tree, and if you can manage it, stay up all night and wait for the dawn and the glorious rising of the ancient sun that has seen so many Yules.

Full Moon Chant

I wrote this when my daughter was about 6 months old and for a time it was chanted very softly to her as I rocked her to sleep. Now shes older and aware of the moon itself I am going to start saying this to her/with her when the moon is full.

Diana, Luna, Isis, Selene                   

Lady of Magic unseen         

Bring with you such gentle dreams          

Diana, Luna, Isis Selene

I wrote the following two to have a similar but more general use, with a little rewording I may use these as invocations during my next ritual

Evening Chant to the God

Goddnight great sun,    

Lord of fire and might,  

as you give way to your Lady’s night.          

Whilst you and I both sleep and dream,   

the Lady brings her starlight streams.         

Evening Chant to the Goddess

Hello Gentle Moon,   

Lady of Magic and Dreams,  

In your light nothing is as it seems.  

As I sleep am I surround,       

by moonlight and its gentle sounds.

Just wishing you a happy Yule one and all, whether your attending a big social event or having a simple solo ceremony like me may the God and Goddess bless you for the coming year.

The festive season is defiantly upon us with such seasonal weather (pushing the buggy through the snow is always the highlight of my winter) and the shops and city centers are heaving with those pesky last minuet shoppers (like my husband and me).

preparations in my house are nearly complete. The house is being cleared of all presents and gifts so Father Christmas can come and collect them tonight, wrap them and bring them back in time for the 25th of December, leaving a little gift because Freya has been such a good girl (a tiger ornament,  I’m sure thats going to get entered into our nightly routine of things to say goodnight to). I might cover my disorganisation in leaving piles of wrapped presents around the house in years to come.

Whatever you are doing, may you have a bright and festive time doing it.

Vicky

I was flipping through a craft magazine when I spotted some sweet cone decorations and decided it was a good idea as a Yule decoration. I’d been wondering how I could get representations of flames into my house without actually lighting a candle in my daughters presence and I realised these little hanging cups would make lovely holders for tissue paper flames. I intend to make these and ceremoniously hang them on the 21st with Freya, just before Odin brings her a tiger to watch over her in her sleep.

• Template (makes a 5” diameter cone) http://www.hostessblog.com/wp-content/uploads/uploaded_images/paper_cone_template.pdf
• Pencil, black pen, colouring pens/pencils
• Card
• Decorative Paper, Natural Paper or Blank Paper
• Red, Yellow and Orange Tissue Paper
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Glue
• Stapler
• Ribbons and trim

1. Trace the cone template on to the card, then trim out. Repeat as many times as you need.
2. You can either use pre-decorated paper, natural paper or plain. In the case of plain have your child draw festive scenes. Draw a slightly larger cone template on to the paper and cut out. Stick this on to the card template and secure with glue.
3. Once dry roll the trimmed paper into a cone shape. Secure the cone shape with a piece of tape on the inside, and use the glue stick to make the outer edge lie flat.
4. Carefully punch two holes into the sides of the cone and thread with ribbon (or secure with tape on the inner edge.
5. Now layer, fold, twist and scrunch your tissue paper into a flame and place into the cone. Hang it on your tree or around your house on Yule as an alternative to open flames.

Simpler Alternative

Take a polystyrene or plastic cup and wrap a slip of paper, wide enough to encircle the cup and deep enough to hide the cup base, which is decorated in advance. Pierce the paper and cup with a pencil and a lump of sticky tack and add the ribbon. Now fill with treats and tissue paper flames. 

Again this should be a nice, simple and recyclable craft project that can be used at Beltane as well

I felt after reading this that it was a wonderful piece that covered not only my earth based sentiments about the season but convayed acceptance of all tranditions of the season. It is something that I’ve added to my personal Parenting Book of Shadows to illustrate and share with my daughter as she grows older.

Our Winter Queen

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=1438410735

You will need:

• Green paper/card
• Googlie eyes
• White and Pink paper/card
• Pipe Cleaners
• Stickers, glitter
• PVA glue and sticky tape

You can either scale down the template from the following link   http://www.hostessblog.com/wp-content/uploads/uploaded_images/paper_cone_template.pdf  or you can use a compass to draw a circle 8cm in diameter and then a protractor to mark off 210 degrees on your circle. Either way you want to do this on green card.

Cut out the circle, then the two portions and retain your waste. This forms the body and you can decorate it in any way you like.

Put to one side and take the waste and cut out two boot shapes. Bend the pipe cleaner in half and stick the two boots on the ends. Take the body and roll into a cone with the pipe cleaner sticking no more than 1cm above the edge (you want to be able to see the boots below the cone)

Now take the green, pink and white paper/card and cut an oval of pink, a beard shape of white and a hat of green. Stick together to make Father Christmas’ face and add the googly eyes in place.

Tie a peice of sting to the pipe cleaner to create a hanging loop and then secure Father Cristmas’ face to the pipe cleaner.

Now he’s ready to hang on you tree or about your house.

A nice variation of this would be a green man and earth/moon goddess as altar decorations. The Greenman would need to be all in green whilst the Earth goddess could also be in greens and browns, just use wool for hair. The moon goddess would look lovely in black/deep blue and white.

I always thought I knew about the origins of Santa Claus and Father Christmas, after all they are the same person aren’t they? When I set out on this I was looking for a ‘pagan’ figure to hold up to my daughter as ‘the spirit of Yule/Christmas’  I realised that whilst they have the same recent history they have different ancient origins.

 The jolly figure of winter fun and frivolity has many names such as Ded Moroz (Farther Frost) in Russia, Sinter Klaas (sound familiar?) in Holland, Pere Noel in France and Farther Christmas in England and the UK. These figures are depicted as wearing red, with flowing white beards sat astride horse or reindeer drawn sleighs in the whitest winter settings but each has an older pagan root which was adopted and adapted by the Christians.

 The differences in the two are slight and can be viewed in terms of the spirit of the season and the cost of the season. Father Christmas doesn’t have the commercial connotations that Santa Claus does and can be found to contain more pagan iconography than the fat, jolly, red faced man in red and white.  I will briefly outline the combined origins of these two figures and set out the period of history since the 1800’s that so firmly divided Christmas and Clause.

Old Man Winter

Considering that there are many henge’s and monuments there are marking the mid-winter solstice it is safe to assume that this event was marked at some stage throughout British pre-history. Whether there was a personification of the season apart from the returning sun god will never be known. It is likely that there was some native representation akin to Jack Frost and Russia’s Ded Moroz  and this figure was absorbed by later traditions entering the land but there is no way to prove it.

 The earliest traditions refer to ‘Old Man Winter’ and ‘Father Winter’ and are linked to the incoming Nordic populations. Old Man Winter is linked to Odin, who rode through the land on Mid-Winters eve on his magical, eight legged horse Sleiphir, seeking hospitality and rewarding both the bad and good accordingly. By the laws of hospitality in Scandinavia at this time any visitors were to be treated like their were Gods incarnate. Old Man Winter would be invited into the house to take part in the festivities in an attempt to ‘warm him up’ in advance of the new year.

 When the Vikings invaded Britain in the 8^th and 9^th Cen’s that they introduced this proto-Father Christmas to the native populations, and it is likely that Odin as Father Winter was combined with the pre-existing example of the Yule Spirit. It was the arrival of the Normans in 1066 that brought the most commonly associated ‘Father Christmas’ figure, St Nicholas. Nicholas was originally from southern Turkey, and was canonised for his charitable works. I will go into more detail later but it is at this time gift giving becomes associated with the figure of winter.

 Father Christmas

It wasn’t until the 15^th century that the first carol was written and Sir Christmas first made his appearance. By the 17^th Century, and especially in the reign of the party loving Tudor King Henry VIII, Captaine Christmas (old Christmas) was taking centre stage as the MC of Christmas celebrations. In Tudor York, Mr and Mrs Christmas would ride through the streets giving gifts of meat and grains to the poor and needy, likely portrayed by a leading member of the merchant classes and his wife. In these instances Christmas is described to have been wearing green, as apposed to red, with a long flowing beard. 

 It was in the 1640’s that the Puritans limbered up to attack and destroy Father Christmas. He was too frivolous and too pagan for their sensibilities. Whilst they didn’t totally destroy him he didn’t regain any real popularity until the advent of the Victorian’s, when there was a revival of all things jolly.

It is now that Father Christmas’ role begins to change. The Victorians not only re-embrace this wonderful mythical figure but re-invent him. The put him on their greeting cards and start to write stories and poems about him and his exploits. He even puts in an appearance in the Dickens’ novel A Christmas Carol as the green clad Spirit of Christmas Present. But it is now that we begin to see the emergence of the New World equivalent, Santa Claus. Slowly but surely there is a drip drip drip of contamination and can mark the first time that ‘King Winter’ is decked out in red.

The New World Order

You’ll notice in paragraph two I made reference to Sinter Klaas and how similar to Santa Claus this is. More so than Father Christmas, Santa Claus is directly linked to St Nicholas. As different European cultures settled in the new world they brought their own religious traditions.

St Nicholas, as we have already seen, is closely associated with this time of year. His saint day was the 6^th of December and he was canonised for his charity and spontaneous gift giving. When the various people reached America the variety of names could be seen. He takes the form of Père Nöel in France and Christ Kind in Germany whilst the Dutch called him Sinter Klass. It is this persona that eventually evolved into Santa Claus.

It isn’t until the 19^th Century that that the more popularised and commercialised American concept of Santa Clause the gift giver reached our shores.  There are hundreds of poems and stories about Santa Clause, “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” or “’Twas the Night before Christmas” written by Dr Clement Clare Moore in 1882. Its from this tale that we get the 8 names for the reindeer with Rudolph being added in 1939 by Robert May, an employee of the Montgomery Ward department store chain as a special promotion which simply caught on.

It was 40 years later when Thomas Nast, cartoonist for Harper’s Weekly immortalized the images that we know so well and which form the basis for the rampant commercialization that is associated with this time of year. It is now that his home is firmly placed in the North Pole, and the letters of request from bright eyes, rosy cheeked children came into effect. His red clothing is first posed, as is his preference for Mince Pies and Whisky. This image was set in place in the 1930’s when Santa sold his soul to Coke-Cola.

My Decision

After this little splurge of research, which isn’t definitive by any stretch of the imagination, you can imagine I hadn’t really answered my question. Father Christmas is truly British, and begins live in very confirmed pagan origins and can be more readily reconciled with the Green Man and Old Man Winter. However, his later associations with Christians might be seen by some as ‘contamination’. On the other hand, Sinterklass and by extension Santa Claus is firmly entrenched in Christian origins and has the added taint of American commercialism.

Personally, it is Father Christmas that comes to our home on both the 21^st and 25^th of December. Treats will be left out for him, in memory of the Scandinavian traditions of hospitality, and the small gifts that get sequestered around the bedroom (unless I go with a stocking/sack to make my life a little easier) are signed from him.

http://www.arthuriana.co.uk/xmas/ a guide to online resources

http://skandland.com/vikxmas.htm

http://www.pagannews.com/cgi-bin/sabbats1.pl?Yule

http://skandland.com/vikxmas.htm

http://www.pagannews.com/cgi-bin/sabbats1.pl?Yule

http://www.whychristmas.com/customs/fatherchristmas.shtml

http://www.worldofchristmas.net/christmas-stockings/history.html

There are many forms that the celebration takes but I use a simple version involving punging the athame into the chalice to bless the liquid, representing the male and the female, whilst saying;

“As the athame is to the male; so the chalice is to the female

And conjoined, they become one in truth.

Let the fruits of union promote life

Let all be fruitful and let wealth be speard through the lands

After taking a sip of liquid the cakes are blessed by drawing a pentagram over them and saying the following;

“Oh Gracious Lady and Lord of Abundance

Bless these cakes and infuse them with your love;

Bestowing health, strength, joy and peace.”

Usually when I mark an Esbat or Sabbat I buy in a nice organic cake for my offering because I’m usually either totally disorganised or I don’t have the time to bake my own.

But I’m aware that as Freya is getting older she beginning to enjoy mixing things up (we made pizza the other day and enjoyed helping me pulp the chopped tomatoes) and I’m sure that she would love to make a simple cake with me. It would be nicer for her to be able to help me and then take part but she is far too young, but that doesn’t mean that other parents could involve their children in the making and eating of their offerings.

I found this lovely, simple recipe which could be used to involve your budding little Jamie Oliver’s in preparation for your Sabbat or Esbat. This is very simple, versatile and will make a lovely inclusion to your cake and ale (fruit juice ) celebration.

It is American in origin, so it uses ‘cups’ rather than weights to measure out ingredients. I’ve included what I believe is the grams equivalent based on internet converters but you can buy sets of cup measures in major supermarkets if you want to make it easier.

Simple Celebration Cakes:

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/glossary/g/Cakes_and_Ale.htm

•  3/4 Cup soft butter (170grams)
•  2 Cups brown sugar  (440grams)
•  2 eggs
•  1 Tbsp. lemon juice
•  2 tsp. grated lemon rind
• 2 Cups flour (256grams)
• 1 Cup finely chopped walnuts (optional) (125grams)

Cream the butter in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add the brown sugar and mix well. Add eggs, lemon juice and rind. Mix until well-blended.

Stir in flour and walnuts. Cover and refrigerate overnight. When chilled, shape dough into one-inch balls and place 3″ apart on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 (I’m guessing that’s about 190 oC) for 8 minutes. Allow to cool before serving.

I found this idea in the Cbeebies Waybaloo magazine of all places. I thought that it would make a nice memory tree and or an altar centre piece to represent the five elements.

You will need 

• A ball of clay/play dough/salt dough
• A paper plate
• A piece of brown paper (about A4 size)
• A strip of white paper and crayons 
•  Long twigs and branches 
•  String/thread
• Anything that you want to represent a memory or one of the elements

Take the ball of clay and place it in the centre of the paper plate. Stick the branches and twigs into the clay.

 Take the piece of brown paper and wrap around the ball of clay, landscape, and secure it with a piece of tape. This represents the tree trunk, so you want to have a good three or four inches’ of wood poking over the edge of the paper. You could also have your child decorate the brown paper with a black crayon so that it has knots and whorls in the bark.

Take the strip of white paper and have your child decorate it with grass and flowers and secure around the bottom of the tree.

Now you can hang anything you want from the branches. If you want this to be a memory tree then you could hang photos, drawings and badges from the tree. For a seasonal tree pick items and images that represent the season or sabbat that is up and coming, with an elemental tree you want things that represent the elements. Anything that your child wants really.

It can be an ornament for your childs room or a centre piece for their own altar. As a seasonal and elemental tree it can take the place of a stang altar (although I realise that a stang looks very different) and be reused time and time again both in doors and out.

I had thought I’d start writing here on Halloween, since it’s only a few days away, I’m more or less ready to begin, and it seemed an appropriate date.

But they shut down Geocities for good last night. That was the site of my first attempt to instruct about pagan things, far, far away in the past. It was a poor attempt compared to what I hope I can do here, but anyway, I thought it’d be nice to go ahead & get started here the very next day.

In any case, something I read recently was talking about how our method of fixing celebrations/Sabbats to a particular calendar date is probably a fairly modern one, and that in the past, people most likely looked for the signs of fall (for example) approaching, and celebrated when it got there. In this case I didn’t note down the source (I’m sure it’s around here somewhere…), but whatever it was, it made sense to me. I want to come back to that issue later at length & after a lot of reading, but for now, I’ve decided that it doesn’t make sense to wait for the calendar date of Halloween to begin my writing, when it’s so drizzly and gloomy and windy and yellow-leaved today.

So, welcome. Come in. Lay your coat on the bed.

What is Samhain

Samhain is the beginning of the new Wheel Year for Wicca and Pagans. The old year has passed, all the leaves have fallen from the trees and the Earth slowly begins to die around us. The harvest has been gathered and all the animals have been brought in from the fields. At sunset on Samhain (October 31st), the Celtic New Year begins.

The rituals of Samhain take place over three consecutive nights and are designed to honor the ancestors that came before us. It is a good time to contact the spirits of those ancestors because the veil between this world and the other is at its thinnest. For that reason, at least one night of celebration should be used for divination of some kind.

Always remember that a ritual is a personal thing, I will put a ritual here for you to use or as a guideline for you to write your own. I like to extend my rituals…performing the same core ritual each of the three nights and then using a different sub-activity for each night. The night before, I use the time between ritual and feast for meditation. The night of the Sabbath, I spend that time in divination exercises and the last night I once again spend time in meditation of what I learned. The way that you arrange your ritual is entirely up to you.

Decorations for this celebration should be any sort of fall decorations that you wish to use. I prefer to use pictures of family members…those still with us and those that have passed. I decorate the table with a cornucopia and fall leaves/limbs from outside as well as some fun harvest theme items that I purchase at the store. I always include the house guardian in any rituals and like to have decorative candlesticks to mark the perimeters of the circle so those can be used as decorations too.

My Samhain Ritual

Before you open your circle, arrange white, red and black candles on the left side of alter; green, black and yellow candles on the right side. Set up your alter with other alter tools and place your circle candles around the designated area. Open your circle and begin your ritual as follows…

Turn to candles on the left and say “I light three candles for the Triple Goddess…The Great Lady of three aspects. (Light white candle) Glorious Maiden, Goddess of youth and new beginnings, dawn and the planted seed. (Light red candle) Great Mother, Goddess of magic and plenty, love and knowledge. (Light black candle) Dark Crone, wise Goddess of the night, death and rebirth. I welcome the Goddess in all Her forms.”

Turn to candles on the right and say “I light three candles for the Triple God…Great Lord of many faces. (Light yellow candle) Bright Sun King, God of success and plenty. (Light green candle) Horned God of the Woodlands, God of fertility and growth. (Light black candle) Dark Lord of the Underworld, God of protection and rest. I welcome the God in all of His forms.”

“Blessed Be!”

“This is the Feast of the Dead, the night of the Wheel-turning year that brings us to the thin veil. The gate between the worlds stands open this night. I honor my ancestors; whose voices come to me on the whispering wind. All of those who wish me well are welcome within this circle.”

Place bread and salt on pentacle and say “This is Ancestor Night, the night strongest for communication with those gone to Emania, those who now dwell in the presence of the Old Gods. The veil has been lifted that I may know I am not forgotten. All those who wish me well are welcome within this circle.”

Raise chalice of wine in toast “I ask all who have gathered here to join me in this feast. May we always have good health, prosperity and happiness.”

Put wine chalice on pentacle and say “May I always be strong in body, mind and spirit. To the Old Gods! Merry meet, merry part, merry meet again. Blessed Be!

Facing the Goddess candles on the left side of alter, say “The year-wheel has turned, the harvest has come again. I have sown many thought-seeds since last Samhain. Let the good be harvested; let those that would hinder or harm me be cast aside. The Triple Goddess has covered me with Her gentle hands, guided my steps, heard my desires; for this I give her honor and love.”

Tap pentacle with your wand three times, “Give me clear knowledge of the path I must follow, hear my desires O Great Ones! Guide and protect me, lead me to greater knowledge and fulfillment.” Observe a moment of silence for spirit guidence then say “All love and honor the Great Lady and Her Lord! Blessed Be!”

Now is the time to break from the ritual area to join in the feast of all of your food choices as well as your meditations and divinations. Don’t forget to give thanks to the Goddess for the bounty of food you are eating and toast to the Old Gods. When the party is over, don’t forget to close the circle (to keep out evil) and I always put some of the left over food outside around the perimiter of my home dwelling…legend has it that if the fairies eat the food by morning, you will be under their protection.

As I am wont to do, I was flipping through some of the used books at work last week, and came across a Pagan Dawn magazine. I was surprised to see an actual insert inside. I opened it, and it was a huge list of events going on in the UK for Beltane 2008.

Last I checked, guys, North America is much bigger than the UK.

Upon closer inspection, there are thousands of pagan events in the UK yearly. There is a massive pagan population (well, the modern movement did start there) and they appear to be ridiculously organized.

I wish for someone to explain to me why we can’t have that here. Why, when the NSPA runs meetings, or AEPG throws their wonderful weekend, can’t we have 500 people out and involved? The UK waves seem flooded with possibility, whereas we seem to struggle to make it to one meeting, or a yearly trip.

Our work weeks are just as long. We have kids, and school, and family just like everyone over there.

Thoughts?

Materials:

Items from Nature, fine wire, sheet of corrugated cardboard, collection sack, small nail. First, take a Nature hike.

Collect items from nature, such as pine cones, seeds, leaves, berry bunches acorns and caps, flowers, etc.remembering how important it is to thank the plant for its gift, and to take only what is needed. When you return home, spread out collection on some newspaper. Cut out a circle about 15″ in diameter, from the cardboard. Cut a smaller circle out of the middle. Wrap the wire around each object so it can be fastened to the cardboard. Poke two small holes in the cardboard ring for each item. Feed the wire through and twist in back. Keep fastening objects onto the ring until it is full and no cardboard shows. Hang the wreath on the front door with the nail.

Again, I found this on Crystal Forest. Although I haven’t tackled it myself I thought that it was a wonderful idea. Previously I bought a pre-made wreath, which I have added to over the years and will make our own next year when my daughter is old enough to brave the october weather and do a full nature walk.

Samhain is from the Irish Samhain meaning “summer’s end” (from sam “summer” and fuin “end”) and refers to a festival on the end of the harvest season in Gaelic and Brythonic cultures, with aspects of a festival of the dead.http://www.forthewitchinyou.co.uk/sabbats2.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain

In Wiccan mythology Samhain represents the death of the God and in turn represents the death of the year and the beginning of a new one. At this time, the Goddess takes her role as crone or wise woman, and now we look to her for guidance. On this night, the wise woman bestows her wisdom in many forms and divination is traditionally preformed now, whilst the veil between the two worlds it the thinnest.

Samhain is the only one of the eight Sabbats that deals with death, and in history, this would have been a time for people to let their loved ones go, to finish jobs, pay debts and start to get everything ready for the winter months ahead. So now is a good time to put aside any differences you may have with someone, ready to move into the New Year.

We remember loved ones who have passed, and we place an extra setting at the dinner table to honour them. A time to remember, and also a time to look to the future. Known to the rest of the world as Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, this is a truly magical time.

I love Samhain/Halloween, not only as part of my religion but because a) it means my birthday is only a few days away and b) I can come out of the ‘broom closet’ in an even more extravagant way than I might normally. Plus I get to dress my little girl up, and its a perfect excuse to buy her something a little different from the princess type dressing up cloths that is usually on offer.

The most important element is remembering the year gone and the people who have gone before us, whether that is to the Summerland or somewhere else. For us it is particularly important because my daughter is named for one such relative, one she never met as she died before Freya was born but even now plays such an important role in our lives.

I recently saw someone on a Facebook group as for ideas for a Samhain ritual which wasn’t technical, overly religious in context and something for all ages to enjoy. I responded with as simple a suggestion as I was able.

Hold a meal for family and friends at which you serve seasonal foods and can talk over the comeings and goings of the year gone by. As you cook and serve you can bless the meal in your own words, or the words of others, and carry on the meal with as little religious fuss and bother as possible. The only ’strange’ but important thing to remember is that you should set an extra place, with a plate and pile on some of the food. Remember to place the plate outside your front door at the end of the evening either to deter those late night trick or treat goers  as well as recognise your departed loved ones. You could try here for some lovely cookies and muffins http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/7039/AshlinCC.html or simply google for other recipes

Since its inception eight years ago my coven’s Mabon ritual has gained a reputation for being particularly poignant to most in attendance.  The ritual includes a guided meditation to the underworld for an audience with Hades and Demeter, essentially taking over the role of Persephone.  Sunday marked my second season participating in this ritual, and it had no less of an impact on me as last year’s audience.  Last year spoke of choices, some I  have made and some I that have yet to present themselves but are nonetheless imminent.  This year Demeter blessed me with courage and told me to weed out those things that no longer serve to my benefit as a follow up to her advice last year to plant my seeds.  This courage came after hades assured me that I am strong enough to weather the difficult path I have chosen, as it was my choice, as long as I tread wisely and without fear.  Hades called me a Warrior.

In my high school sophomore english class we read and discussed The Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston.  At the time I was already on a slightly prematurely rocky road, and i was just starting to understand what it meant to not just survive, but to live life despite turmoil.  Still, I had not yet fully come to understand just what it means to be a Warrior.

When Hubby asked me to marry him he told me I was the woman he had always been looking for to walk beside him, fight along with him, and lead in his stead.  In the last year this bond has been significantly and repeatedly tested.  We have experienced loss, illness, financial troubles, and unemployment, but we have persevered.  Those struggles are not yet over, and we continue to do our best not to let these things affect our relationship.  Sometimes, however, the roadblock is our relationship itself.  This is when fighting for the good of our household becomes difficult.

Any strong woman can push through personal hardship, and I have.  My survival story started young.  At five years old I took full ownership of my parents’ faltering marriage and stared into the night’s oncoming headlights considering walking straight into them like an insect on the highway.  From there I learned to suppress things children aren’t supposed to know, hear, or feel.  I pushed from my memory the “tickle game” played by my mom’s one boyfriend and the “intimidation” and “which drug dealer is calling to threaten all our lives now” games played with subsequent men in her life.  My mom’s sickness and death, as well as my own inner struggles, gave me constant occasion to revisit the thoughts I’d had of “joining the night” years before.  I tried several times, lost myself several more, and eventually tried running away from it all.  Half grown but still scared, I was a survivor still fighting for her life against her life.
Like most things in this world, you can never leave the past behind, but you can use it to strengthen yourself for future blows.  In Philadelphia I’ve found myself up against hurdles I never imagined I could clear, but none I let defeat me completely.  I’ve kept my soul in the wakes of death, loss, intrusion, emotional and physical abuse, sexual assault, sickness, grief, and a storm that still rages inside me at times.  There were times I just wanted to stop fighting it and let life take its course and swallow me, and there were times I gave up and it almost did.

All these things were easy in comparison to fighting for our good when it may mean giving up a piece of myself, but a good Warrior knows there are times when the only course of action is to fall.  Sometimes our benefit lies in me accepting ideas or options I cannot fathom living with or welcoming into my home.  Sometimes what is best for us hurts me or comes as a detriment to my goals.

I continue to meditate on what it really means, at this juncture in my life, to be a true Warrior.  Do I know when to make peace and when to fight for what I need?  Do I know how to mediate?  Do I know how to heal?  Do I know how to preserve myself while striving to help others?  Do I know how to recognize the honour and worth in myself?  What else is there for me to discover about myself before I can call myself a Warrior, and at what cost will I gain the knowledge I need to continue my path?

I leave you with this, dear readers.  Look deep inside yourself and find and redefine the Warrior within you.

175g unsalted butter (3/4 cup or 6 oz)
175g soft brown sugar (3/4 cup or 6 oz)
2 large eggs, beaten
225g self raising flour (2 1/4 cup or 9 oz)
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
450g cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped into small pieces (I had 450g weight of fruit post-peeling, coring)
50g sultanas (1/3 cup or 2 oz)
50g currants (1/3 cup or 2 oz)
50g flaked almonds (2/3 cup or 1 oz)

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. (Ours is a fan oven, so I baked at 170C for an hour). Prepare an 18cm/9 inch cake tin.
2. In a pan melt together the butter and sugar (the sugar won’t dissolve completely, this is fine, but do stir the mixture). Allow to cool slightly before beating in the eggs.
3. Sift flour and spices into a bowl. Add the melted ingredients and beat together gently.
4. Put the apples, sultanas, currants and almonds into a second bowl, and mix up.
5. Spoon half the cake mixture into the bottom of the prepared tin, and then add the fruit and nuts – at this point I thought that I had created a cake disaster, with a hugely disproportionate amount of apple, and not enough cake ‘body’ to bind the whole together – then finish with the remainder of the cake mix.
6. Lightly smooth the surface of the cake, to press down the contents. Place in oven to bake for about an hour, or until firm to touch and a skewer comes out clean (60 minutes worked for me).
7. Leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cake had gone into the oven I spent a bit of time worrying about how it would turn out. So much fruit had gone into the middle of my ‘sandwich’, that I could only imagine that the result was going to be a formless apple subsidence. I kept on peeking through the oven door, to see if I could determine the outcome , but whilst in the tin and baking the cake looked innocent of bad intent. When the hour was up, the cake exited the oven and then sat patiently for a further half hour whilst I plucked up courage to liberate it. Ta-daa! The finger-crossing paid off, and my cake stayed cake-like. In fact, I hadn’t needed to worry at all. When I cut into the cake I could see that the sponge mixture placed top and bottom had cleverly found a way to unite, and the fruit in the middle was self-supporting. From the outside of the cake was discreetly visible a seam of fruit, but inside the centre was a glorious moist windfall.