Hecate speaks:
"I have been with you from the beginning. Silently, I watched you growing, and I was at all your rites of passage. I was the priestess holding aloft the torches of life in each hand, one pointing up to the heaven and one down to the great below, for it is said, “As above so below.”
Even the Earth herself calls on my services. I am the queen of the crossroads, witch queen, the transformer. I have come again this season to scream my frightening banshee yell and scatter pumpkins on your doorsteps and skeletons in your yard.
The ancient primal season of the witch is here, and you welcome me. Yes, you love to be frightened by me. I force you to laugh at your own death, to dress up your children in ghostly guise. Now comes your first sense of the upcoming cold season, chilling to the bone. I bring the final harvest, and if you haven’t picked your crops, I’ll nip them with frost. After Halloween, all that’s left in the fields is mine!
If you wish to honor me, I will show you my magical ways. I take away your fears of death and remind you to plan for your last days.
I am the keeper of the altars, outdoors and inside. I am speaking to you when you feel the desire to stand alone on a hillside. To look up in a clearing in the woods, and talk to the full moon.
I am the wild part of you, your sixth sense, the one that gives you your hunches, premonitions, dreams. I am the priestess immortal. My face is threefold—young, full bloom and crone. I see ahead and behind. I am the hinge of reality.
Into your lives I bring these feelings, even now in the artificial forests of your urban concrete world. My witches are flying on their broomsticks, and the ghosts are shimmering in your windows.
All is well, Halloween is near; souls will come to visit when the living world throws a party to mingle with the dead. I will share in your merriment and warm my cold hands at your hearth."
* * *
"I have been with you from the beginning. Silently, I watched you growing, and I was at all your rites of passage. I was the priestess holding aloft the torches of life in each hand, one pointing up to the heaven and one down to the great below, for it is said, “As above so below.”
Even the Earth herself calls on my services. I am the queen of the crossroads, witch queen, the transformer. I have come again this season to scream my frightening banshee yell and scatter pumpkins on your doorsteps and skeletons in your yard.
The ancient primal season of the witch is here, and you welcome me. Yes, you love to be frightened by me. I force you to laugh at your own death, to dress up your children in ghostly guise. Now comes your first sense of the upcoming cold season, chilling to the bone. I bring the final harvest, and if you haven’t picked your crops, I’ll nip them with frost. After Halloween, all that’s left in the fields is mine!
If you wish to honor me, I will show you my magical ways. I take away your fears of death and remind you to plan for your last days.
I am the keeper of the altars, outdoors and inside. I am speaking to you when you feel the desire to stand alone on a hillside. To look up in a clearing in the woods, and talk to the full moon.
I am the wild part of you, your sixth sense, the one that gives you your hunches, premonitions, dreams. I am the priestess immortal. My face is threefold—young, full bloom and crone. I see ahead and behind. I am the hinge of reality.
Into your lives I bring these feelings, even now in the artificial forests of your urban concrete world. My witches are flying on their broomsticks, and the ghosts are shimmering in your windows.
All is well, Halloween is near; souls will come to visit when the living world throws a party to mingle with the dead. I will share in your merriment and warm my cold hands at your hearth."
* * *
Hecate’s speech above was adapted from the book The Grandmother of Time, by Z. Budapest, although I took a few liberties with the original. It reminds us of an important goal we can all set for the month of October.
October is a good time to tidy up the soul. Make a list of things that have got to go, such as resentment of friends or enemies, anger at yourself, regrets. Just think through your life to see what you no longer need. Go through your soul as if it were a long-forgotten attic, and see where cleaning up is way overdue, then write down what you find.
Note: Negative situations that are not your own doing are a different issue: If you are struggling with depression or other mental illness. If you got ripped off. If you lost your job because you’re a woman, or the wrong color skin, or too old. These oppressions are not your doing, so don’t blame yourself for them. Find groups with which to work through and channel your anger into political activism. It can give your life new meaning!
October is a good time to tidy up the soul. Make a list of things that have got to go, such as resentment of friends or enemies, anger at yourself, regrets. Just think through your life to see what you no longer need. Go through your soul as if it were a long-forgotten attic, and see where cleaning up is way overdue, then write down what you find.
Note: Negative situations that are not your own doing are a different issue: If you are struggling with depression or other mental illness. If you got ripped off. If you lost your job because you’re a woman, or the wrong color skin, or too old. These oppressions are not your doing, so don’t blame yourself for them. Find groups with which to work through and channel your anger into political activism. It can give your life new meaning!
Spell to Let Go
Create an altar with black cloth, the color of the universe, the color of chaos, where everything come from and to which everything must return. Place some fallen leaves on the loth, to represent the natural order of the seasons and the discarded past. The fallen leaves are beautiful, but they are meant to become compost, to compost is where all our bad garbage is going as well.
Place your list of psychic garbage on the table. Light two black candles, one on either side, and burn some dispelling incense.
*Frankincense, Dragon’s Blood, Sandalwood – Ease depression and stress.
*Copal, Myrrh, Lavender – Spiritual cleansing
* Myrrh, Pine resin, Peppermint- Healing
* Benzoin, Amber, Rose – Promote love and harmony (external effect)
When you pray to the Goddess, talk normally, as if to your own sweet mama. You can say:
“Dearest Goddess: I have come a long way this year, carrying my burdens, and the burdens of the world, which I have internalized. I would like to take them off my shoulders and give them back to you to recycle, bury, to compost. Here, I offer you my resentments against friends, family, and (fill in your own needs here), and ask you to absorb them into your black cloak of the universe. Relieve me of them and allow me to walk more lightly.”
Burn your list in the flames of your candles. Now imagine all these feelings evaporating into smoke, and say something like: “I feel light, happy and cleansed. Dearest Goddess, you are my true strength and guide. I thank you for being accessible and answering your children’s call. I honor you and thank you.”
Gather all the things that were part of your meditation and cast them into a living body of water. Just as importantly, let go of your thoughts about the ritual.
Samhain Blessings to you!
Create an altar with black cloth, the color of the universe, the color of chaos, where everything come from and to which everything must return. Place some fallen leaves on the loth, to represent the natural order of the seasons and the discarded past. The fallen leaves are beautiful, but they are meant to become compost, to compost is where all our bad garbage is going as well.
Place your list of psychic garbage on the table. Light two black candles, one on either side, and burn some dispelling incense.
*Frankincense, Dragon’s Blood, Sandalwood – Ease depression and stress.
*Copal, Myrrh, Lavender – Spiritual cleansing
* Myrrh, Pine resin, Peppermint- Healing
* Benzoin, Amber, Rose – Promote love and harmony (external effect)
When you pray to the Goddess, talk normally, as if to your own sweet mama. You can say:
“Dearest Goddess: I have come a long way this year, carrying my burdens, and the burdens of the world, which I have internalized. I would like to take them off my shoulders and give them back to you to recycle, bury, to compost. Here, I offer you my resentments against friends, family, and (fill in your own needs here), and ask you to absorb them into your black cloak of the universe. Relieve me of them and allow me to walk more lightly.”
Burn your list in the flames of your candles. Now imagine all these feelings evaporating into smoke, and say something like: “I feel light, happy and cleansed. Dearest Goddess, you are my true strength and guide. I thank you for being accessible and answering your children’s call. I honor you and thank you.”
Gather all the things that were part of your meditation and cast them into a living body of water. Just as importantly, let go of your thoughts about the ritual.
Samhain Blessings to you!
RSS Feed
