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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