Whether you celebrate Halloween or Samhain tonight, here's a fun cocktail for your witching hour…and a perfect use for that pumpkin you didn't have time to decorate!
 
The Drunken Pumpkin
1 pumpkin
Apple cider
Cranberry juice
Ginger ale
Pumpkin pie spice
1 cinnamon stick
 
Slice off the top of the pumpkin, scoop out seeds and clean as thoroughly as possible.
Pour equal amounts of cider, cranberry juice, ginger ale and rum into the pumpkin until full.
Pour liquids back out of pumpkin and into a sauce pan with cinnamon stick and sprinkle of spice.
Warm until just boiling.
Refill the pumpkin with liquids and serve immediately.
 
Have a great night!
 

​Part of many witch's observance of Samhain is the Dumb Supper. The Dumb Supper is a feast held in silence…with settings laid for the beloved dead. It is held in silence in respect for them. They cannot speak, but they will communicate with you easier if your mind and heart is open. That is easier if you are not thinking about what to say, and the better to remember those who are gone.
 
During the waning half of the year, we encounter the energy of sacrifice, of the descent into the Underworld for the winter months. The last of the three harvests, Samhain represents the sacrifice of life that leads to life again. We let go of the old, sacrifice old patterns and habits, and then fill the void with new, positive aspects.
 
Now, during the final waning of the old year, we seek out our ancestors, to acknowledge their positive influences on our life, as well as to right any wrongs or misunderstandings, so those departed souls may complete their journey to the Otherworld unfettered.
 
You can host your own Dumb Supper and make it as simple or as elaborate as you like. The one described below can be used for a small or large group, the only restriction being how many people you can seat at your table.
 
Ask your guests to write a note containing a message to their ancestors.The food you serve is personal choice. I like to ask people to bring a pot luck dish that is an old family recipe, or if their family traditions do not include well-loved dishes, to remember that Samhain is all about the vegetables of the second fall harvest: pumpkins, gingerbread, winter squash, corn, nuts, mulled cider or wine. 
Traditionally, the Dumb Supper décor is black—black tablecloth, black plates, cups and so forth. I divide my feast table in two, one half black for the ancestors, the other half white for the living. On the dark side, place a black votive candle on the plate at each empty chair. Have a bunch of extra black votives available, for any guests who wish to honor more than one ancestor. In addition to the Ancestor votives, I try to light the entire dining area with oil lanterns and candles.
 
The last item you will need is a Spirit chair, situated at the head of the table. Put an orange or white pillar candle on the Spirit chair plate, and place a small cauldron or some other fireproof container on the table next to the candle.
 
On the big night, prepare everything before your guests arrive. Since the dinner itself will be conducted in complete silence, you will need to have everything on the table buffet-style ahead of time. Shroud your Spirit chair, and place all of the food serving dishes in front of Spirit. Put the cauldron or ashes container on a small table away from the food, along with a lit white pillar candle. Cleanse and consecrate the dining area and cast a sacred circle around it, in any way you are comfortable with. I normally use a white sage bundle, running it above the table while saying, "I consecrate this sacred space. May only good enter herein. Spirits, please be with us, so we may honor you tonight."
 
If you like, you can also provide a way for your guests to cleanse themselves as they enter the dining area. You can use the sage bundle, or make a bowl of blessed water by combining purified water, three drops of lavender essential oil, then drop in a small crystal or amethyst into the bowl. As each guest enters the dining area, he or she should go to the Spirit chair, touch it and say a silent simple prayer. Then they light their remembrance votives and place them on a black plate of their choosing, and slip their note under the plate.
 
Your guests should enter the dining area and be seated from oldest to youngest, with the two eldest members sitting on each side of the Spirit chair. The host will begin the feast by serving the living guests from oldest to youngest. Before eating, take a moment and remember the Ancestors who have passed before you, and thank them for the positive effects they have had on your life.
 
After everyone has finished eating, join hands, silently asking for the blessings of Spirit on the living and the dead. As guests exit, one by one, they retrieve their note, light it with the candle flame, and burn it in the ashes dish.
 
After the host thanks Spirit, the guests may return to the table to share any impression they received during the feast. The table is cleared except for candles and your scrying tools: Tarot cards, runes, pendulum etc. Use your remaining time for divination by candlelight. When all guests have departed, snuff the candles and throw the candle ends and prayer ashes into a moving body of water, or bury them off the property.
 

I do quite a few online promotion parties, but I'm especially excited about this one. First it's so well run and organized. Second, it features my kind of paranormal - witches, ghosts, demons and fairies--as well as all kinds of Halloween and Samhain lore. And third, it includes 30 fantastic authors!

The event runs for four days next week, Thursday - Sunday. Authors participating are posting EVERY DAY this month, so hop over and enjoy the scariness and fun any time. But be sure to visit the event site during MY takeover time is Friday evening from 4:30-6:00 Pacific time.

If there are any online games you especially enjoy, leave me a blog reply here, and I'll do my best to include your requests. I will be posting a couple of Samhain-related excerpts from from my book, as well as details about the next two books in the series.
And I'll be doing "give-aways" also. I have some really nice bookmarks and wine charms, and of course, free ebooks and one print book.  I think I'll also give away a couple of LOVE SPELL kits and maybe some TAROT READINGS during my hour.  There will also be some trivia and games, silly Halloween pictures to caption. 

Please come by, say "hello" and join in the fun!

​ Samhain. It’s my favorite, whether the witchy Sabbat, or the mundane Halloween party. Seeing the orange and black Spirit stores pop up overnight in the strip malls brings a maniacal smile to my face. Yes, it’s true that Halloween’s a monster of an industry. But it’s more than that. It’s magic in the truest sense. A time when all bets are off, and we can act out, children and adults, without restraint or fear of judgment. We can part the veil and talk (yes talk!) With our dearly departed, and there's a good chance they'll answer.
 
This holiday is the dark aesthetic blended with romance, myth, and rebellion. When the leaves change and the evenings go chilly, I’m transported back to running the neighborhood with my pals in Zorro capes, witch’s hats, and black cat costumes complete with swishing tail. I recall a knot of children screaming on a front porch when the homeowner, a normally mild-mannered adult, opens the door in full wolf’s garb and growls, “Do you dare ask for candy?”
  
On this one extraordinary night, we willingly run into the dark rather than away from it. We grope in the pitch black field of cornstalks, brittle and bleached white like bones in the light of a crescent moon. We pay to scream with strangers in dark haunted houses, stuffy with billowing fog.
 
Wait! Listen: I think I hear something scratching outside. Halloween waits. Let’s have some fun. You coming?

​#1 Zombie Walk. Unearth your inner ghoul. An evening of bloody good times, Zombie Walks have risen in nearly every major metro area from Toronto to Tampa. There’s even a Route 66 Zombie Crawl in Galena, KS, population 3,000. Many of the walks are family affairs with special activities for kids, even pets. Non-zombies are also invited to attend. After all, you can't have a proper zombie apocalypse without victims. Don't know how to become a zombie? No problem. There are often makeup artists on hand at the event to make you look appropriately rotted. Or find instructions for your look online. Then claw your way out of the grave and stagger out to join me.

​#2 Witch’s Ball. Granted, Salem and New Orleans hold the granddaddies of these fetes, but witch’s balls have sprung up everywhere. Be warned though, you may not find an announcement in your local paper. I googled ‘witch’s ball’, ‘Halloween ball’ and ‘All Hallows masquerade’ for Phoenix and found a plethora of costume parties to choose from. Pick one that features not just costumes, but a psychic fair, dumb supper (see #4 below), or an Underworld journey to visit the dead, so you can experience the full flavor of the event. 

​​#3 Ghost Hunting. Many towns have places reputed to be haunted. Sign up for a tour and try your hand at paranormal investigation. The tours often provide you with detection equipment, and bring your digital camera to capture orbs, shadows, apparitions and other phenomena.

#4 Hold a Dumb Supper. I follow this ancient tradition with my family every Hallows Eve, to commune with the souls of our loved ones on the other side of the veil. Transform your covered patio. Divide a long table in half with black material hung from the ceiling, to designate one side for the living and one half for the spirits. Put pictures and mementos of your loved ones on the spirit side, along with offerings of their favorite foods. The meal is conducted in silence, so we can concentrate on opening our heart and soul to those who may cross over and visit. Serve the meal course backwards, including the placement of everything down to the silverware, as a means of weaving your earth-bound participants down into the Shadow World of the spirits. Have a pencil and paper ready to do automatic writing and capture any messages from the beyond.

#5 Throw a Tarot Spread. Samhain, the witch’s version of Halloween, is also considered the perfect time for divination. Here’s a fun reading called “Haunted House.” In dreams, a house often represents you, the chambers and passages symbolizing your own inner dwelling place. So light your candle, open your mind’s creaky door, and peer into the darkened corner of your own Halloween haunted house!
Shuffle your favorite tarot deck in your usual way. Lay out seven cards as follows: 

#6 Visit a Corn Maze. The corn maze is the epitome of Samhain, the last harvest season. They have become popular tourist attractions and a way for farms to create additional income. Many are based on artistic designs such as movie characters or current events, and some are even created to tell stories or to portray a particular theme. Most have a path, which goes all around the whole pattern, either to end in the middle or to come back out again. In Arizona, my annual go-to spot is the 10-acre maze at Schnepf Farms. Last year, my son resorted to GPS on his phone to get us out. If you’d like a real challenge, go on Oct. 16 and navigate by full moon instead of flashlights. Or combine the maze with a really scary haunted house. 

#7 Corpses for Sale. A full-size corpse, nicely decaying head, moveable extremities. Blue eyes. No, brown. Or maybe empty sockets.  Every year, www.corpsesforsale.com packs a dozen or so of them on trucks for delivery to film makers, collectors and the odd person who wants to drive around with one in the passenger seat of the car. Since 1991, creator and proprietor Jaime Di Stefano has crafted unlife-like corpses from chicken wire, wood, latex and cotton. Of course, he thinks of them as art projects, not stiffs. Don’t you want one?

​#8 Give More than Candy. Do something extra for trick or treaters. Over the years, I’ve set up a Severus Snape Potions Lab in our garage, complete with Veritaserum (hot cider in a carafe surrounded by fog). The whole family has dressed up and posed in the front-yard cemetery, rising up to greet trick or treaters as they come up the driveway. I’ve done tarot card readings at the local Halloween carnival; thrown chicken bones for divination around a neighborhood fire pit after we put the kids to bed; read palms by candlelight. You have a latent talent buried within. Unearth it this Halloween. 

​9. Make a screamer. These cloth mache monsters are a lot of work, but boy are they fun! I’m making three witches to circle the cauldron in our front yard.  

​​9. Make a screamer. These cloth mache monsters are a lot of work, but boy are they fun! I’m making three witches to circle the cauldron in our front yard. For instructions, see the easy step-by-step instructions in this book.
 

​10. Practice Psychometry   This is the ability to sense or “read” the history of an object by touching it. Impressions may be images, sounds, smells, tastes, even emotions. A practiced  psychometrist  can hold an object—an antique glove, for example-- and be able to tell something about the history of that glove, what the owner was like, what they did and even how they died. 

Perhaps most importantly, the psychic can sense how the person felt - the emotions of the person at a particular time. Emotions especially, it seems, are most strongly "recorded" in the object.
       Don’t believe me? Try it at your Halloween party. Have each guest bring one or two items that have a strong history and sentimental value. Take turns exchanging tokens. Hold one in your hand and relax. Share the impressions you get, and let the owner tell you how close your information was at the end. If you’re having trouble picking up information, silently ask yourself questions to help trigger information such as, “how many owners has this object had?” “Where was this object purchased?” “Was it given as a gift?” “Did a male or female give you this object?” And so on. You may be surprised at the accuracy.

11. Make a Will. If you don’t have a will or living trust, do one this month. Why is this activity in my list? Our society spends most of its time trying not to think about death. Samhain, on the other hand, celebrates death. It fills our imaginations like no other day. Take advantage of that openness. Get it done. Then make a point to review and update if needed on future Samhains.