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Celebrating Samhain                                                                              17







               Celebrating Samhain                        rolling hills of southwestern Wisconsin, USA.         Poor black cats.  We just think they’re
                                                          Selena also is a psychotherapist, a minister   just misunderstood.
                                                          active in interfaith endeavors, and a guest
                  Continued from Page 15                  speaker at conferences, festivals, colleges and Being a woman
                                                          universities and other venues. Her writings have
                                                          appeared in a variety of publications in-print  Although men were accused of witchcraft too, if
           •  Cemetery Visit. Visit and tend the gravesite  and on-line. More info about her and her     you dared to be a woman it was far more likely
             of a loved one at a cemetery. Call to mind   endeavors: www.selenafox.com. []               you’d be burned at the stake. Sorry, ladies.
             memories and consider ways the loved one                                                    Witchcraft has always been more associated
             continues to live on within you. Place an             Black cats, left-                     with female folk, which goes all the way back to
             offering there such as fresh flowers, dried                                                 Biblical times when Eve bit the serpent’s
             herbs, or a libation of water.                   handedness and other                       forbidden apple. A patriarchal society in early
           •  Reflections. Reflect on you and your life                                                  modern Europe didn’t help, and many theorists
             over the past year. Review journals,              signs of ‘witchcraft’                     believe women were targeted to create a
             planners, photographs, blogs, and other                                                     negative female stereotype, with trials being
             notations you have created during the past                  by Pottermore                   held to assert men’s masculinity.
             year. Consider how you have grown,
             accomplishments, challenges, adventures,     In Harry Potter, Muggles have a complex        Your milk always spoils
             travels, and learnings. Meditate. Journal    relationship with wizarding kind – those who
             about your year in review, your meditation,  know they even exist, anyway. But in our own   You may just be really bad at looking after your
             and your reflections.                        history, we also have fascinating superstitions  milk, OR you might be a whopping great witch.
           •  Renovate. Select an area of your home or    when it came to spotting witchcraft.           Apparently,     those    two     things    are
             life as a focus. Examine it. Re-organize it.        Historically, magic has always raised   interchangeable. In the 1486 book The Malleus
             Release what is no longer needed. Create a   eyebrows and superstitions, and to this day    Maleficarum, the extent of a witch’s powers are
             better pattern. Celebrate renewal and        we’ll always hesitate for a moment if we walk  discussed – things such as causing diseases,
             transformation.                              under a ladder or if a black cat crosses our path.  blighting crops or flying – but also the very
           •  Bonfire Magic. Kindle a bonfire outdoors    (Either that, or we’ll waste ten minutes petting  specific power of turning milk sour. So even
             when possible or kindle flames in a fireplace  it.)                                         with all the magic in the universe, you still
             or a small cauldron.  Write down an                 Thanks to Harry Potter, we now have     couldn’t have a good cup of tea? Forget it, then.
             outmoded habit that you wish to end and      more positive connotations of magical folk, but
             cast it into the Samhain flames as you       it wasn’t always that way. Particularly in the
                                                                                                         Having a birthmark
             imagine release. Imagine yourself adopting   16th and 17th centuries, witches were seen as a
             a new, healthier way of being as you move    deadly threat to society, which sparked
                                                                                                         Freckles, blemishes, birthmarks and scars were
             around the fire clockwise.                   hundreds of years of witch hunts, burnings and
                                                                                                         considered to be other signs of infernal witchery.
           •  Divinatory Guidance. Using Tarot, Runes,    more across Europe and America. But how do
                                                                                                         That explains Harry Potter’s lightning bolt, then.
             Scrying, or some other method of             you even spot a witch? Well, in ye olden days
                                                                                                         Instead of assuming they were simply quirks of
             divination, seek and reflect on guidance for  we had a few ideas about that, too.
                                                                                                         human skin, witch-hunters during the 1600s
             the year to come. Write a summary of your                                                   took these sort of things to be ‘witch marks’,
             process and messages. Select something       Being left-handed                              made upon a person in cahoots with the Devil.
             appropriate to act upon and do it.
                                                                                                         Charming.
           •  Divine Invocations. Honor and call upon     Because using your left hand is far less common
             the Divine in one or more Sacred Forms       than using your right, people leapt to the idea  Having a bad reputation
             associated with Samhain, such as the Crone   that left-handed people must obviously be
             Goddess and Horned God of Nature. Invite     magical beings from another world. Being a
             Them to aid you in your remembrance of the   leftie has been linked with witchcraft for     As you can imagine, if someone bore a grudge
             Dead and in your understanding of the cycle  centuries, and in more morbid circles is called ‘a  against you during the days of the Salem Witch
             of life, death, and rebirth. If you have lost  mark of the Devil’. Surely left-handed scissors  Trials, you can bet you’d be accused of
             loved ones in the past year, ask these Divine  aren’t that bad.                             witchcraft by the end of the week. One such sad
             Ones to comfort and support you.                    Superstitions have always followed the  case was the tale of Sarah Good, a widow who
           •  Transforming Expressions.        If you     direction of ‘left’ – such as the left side of the  was mired in debt, and thus became a homeless
             encounter distortions, misinformation,       bed being considered the wrong side to get out  beggar. The people of Salem were quick to turn
             and/or false, negative stereotypes about     of, or passing a drink with your left hand being  on her, and accused her of muttering
             Paganism and Samhain in the media,           bad luck. Even the Latin word ‘sinistra’, which  incantations when she was asking for money.
             contact the source, express your concerns,   roughly translates to ‘sinister’ (nothing to do  She was, in the end, one of the first three people
             and share accurate information. Help         with Professor Sinistra, we hope), originally  at that time to be found guilty of witchcraft.
             eradicate derogatory stereotyping with       meant ‘left’, and eventually it became a
             courteous,    concise,   and    intelligent  common misconception that left-handed folk     Nowadays, thanks to Harry Potter, we’d love to
             communications.Community Connections.        were, indeed, big bad witches.                 be a witch. []
             Connect with others. Join in a group ritual in
             your area. Organize a Samhain potluck in     Black cats
             your home. Research old and contemporary
             Samhain customs in books, periodicals, on-
                                                          It’s hard not to think of a witch without thinking
             line, and through communications with
                                                          of a pointy hat, a broomstick and, of course, a
             others. Exchange ideas, information, and
                                                          black cat. The cat association takes us back to
             celebration experiences. Regardless of       Celtic mythology, where a fairy known as the
             whether you practice solo or with others, as  Cat Sith took the form of a black feline. The
             part of your festivities, reflect for a time on  fantastical reputation of cats preceded them, and
             being part of the vast network of those
                                                          the Pilgrims were big believers that they were
             celebrating Samhain around the world.
                                                          bad news, too.
                                                                 In the realm of Harry Potter, Hermione
          About the Author:
                                                          had a bit of nasty luck with the creatures as well,
                 Selena Fox is senior minister of Circle
                                                          after some Polyjuice Potion transformed her
          Sanctuary, an international Wiccan church and
                                                          into a black cat instead of Millicent Bulstrode.
          Pagan resource center headquartered in the
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