Halloween in the 'ville. A semi fictional story!

Ahhh... The days are cooler, the nights earlier. The earth is preparing for it's winters sleep. Fall colors are popping up everywhere. The few leaves that are left are brown, orange, red, and gold. Pumpkins and other gourds are in a plethora of shapes and colors. Plasitc rap ghosts are swinging from the trees and witches can be found around every corner. Black cats are given an especially wide berth these days...just in case. And children are in the stores begging for the latest superhero costume.

This is, no doubt, my favorite time of year. And NOT just because I am a witch. But it does make it extra special ;) Halloween has always been the big holiday for me. I deck out the porch and yard. I dress up in costume. And I, by the Gods, give out the good stuff to trick or treaters. There is no generic tootsie rolls or dum dum suckers at my house. (Unless of course you include that time that the town next door had there trick or treat on a different night and I had to break out the kids parade candy bags for the unexpected numbers that showed up at my door!) That does not happen anymore.

My sole goal in life is to be remembered in fifty years as the great place to go trick or treating. I can picture it now...on a halloween night fifty years in the future. A grandpa is getting ready to take his 5year old grandchild trick or treating. As they walk out of the back of the house and down the driveway he starts reminicing...

"When I was a kid everyone went to this one house down on Johnson street.... The house was small...and old....The porch roof was nothing but studs and there was a board or two missing from the porch wall. You could see and hear the flashing and booming from the thunder and lightening machine before you got close. Sometimes halloween music would be blasting and sometimes it was creepy sounds and screams."

"Was it haunted poppy?"

"I thought so when I was little Evie... the lady that lived there was a witch! She had a black cat and she ALWAYS dressed up as a witch. She even had a real witches broom propped in the corner."

"Did she fly on it poppy?"

"oh...I don't think so. She had a black jeep in her driveway. I think she used that to get around."

Evies eyes were big and round as full moons. "What else was there poppy? Did she have monsters?"

"Well, I remember an old black fence. It surrounded the graveyard that would appear in her front yard. There were skeletons in the graveyard and a zombie or two."

"A real zombie poppy?"

"No, that was right about the time the first zombies started appearing in big cities. But there were no zombies in that little town. Do you want to hear this story or not?" Evie shook her head up and down so fast that her witches hat fell off. Poppy dusted it off and set it to rights on her head.

"Everyone went to the witches house at halloween. She gave out really good candy. Not that cheap stuff. AND, you usually got more than one thing. A candy bar, a sucker, and chocolate eyeballs. Sometimes bubble gum eyeballs. And you always came away with some king of toy too. A spider ring or halloween pencil. Vampire fangs or an eyeball ping pong ball. But it wasn't the candy that brought everyone there. It was the experience..."

"Whats a sperience poppy?"

Poppy grinned at her. "A sperience Evie is what you get when you see something new, or learn something new. Tonight, me and you are going to have a experience."

Evie looked puzzled.. she shook herself, "Tell me more poppy."

"Ok, the town I grew up in Evie was a very small town. Not like here. Everyone knew everyone else. And everyone knew that the lady that lived in that house was a witch. But she was a nice witch and no one was scared of her. She had kids and dogs and cats. She even had a rat once."
"Ewww. A real rat?"

Poppy laughed. "Yep, a real rat. Its name was Lilliput. Anyway, we always walked to the houses in town to trick or treat. Just like we are doing now. When you got about a block away you could see the flashing of lightening and you could see fog drifting low to the ground. Music would be playing and the witch would be up on her porch giving out candy."

"The graveyard was usually the first thing you saw. Gravestones and skeletons. Caskets and a ghost that floated back and forth through the graveyard. There was a giant grim reaper that had glowing red eyes. You had to walk under his outstretched arm to get to the candy. And there were big eyeball lights that glowed different colors too. One year there was a gorilla that jumped out at you and once there was a boy dressed in a skeleton costume that would step out from behind a bush and scare you."

Poppy smiled, his eyes were miles away as he remembered. "When you got to the porch there were a whole lot more things to look at. Pictures that would change and look like monsters. Gargoyles and skulls that would talk to you. Glowing lights and flying bats."

"Every year something new was added. There was almost always a line to get up to the porch. Sometimes her kids would be there passing out candy and dressed up in costumes too. But I got the feeling that the witch wasn't really dressed up in a costume. I think that was the one night that she dressed up the way she really wanted to. She always looked plum comfortable in her black flowy dresses. Did I tell you she even had a real witches cauldron?"

"A real one!"

"Yessiree. A real one. And she never turned anyone away for candy either. If you showed up at her house, you got candy. Didn't matter if you were 4, 14, or 44. No matter the age, everyone came out of there with candy and an experience."

"Whatever happened to her poppy? Well...she got old, it got harder and harder for her to put up all that stuff. But her kids kept it up. As a matter of fact we are at one of her kids houses now."

Evie looked up, a giant graveyard had appeared in the yard. "Poppy", Evie looked around. "This is your house!"

Poppy grinned. "Yep it is."

"Who was the witch poppy?"

"Well, the witch was my mommy. That would make her your great grandma."

" Gee Gee isn't a witch poppy. She's a nice old lady!"

Evie heard a cackle from the porch. She ran to it, "GeeGee!"

"Theres my little witchling. You going to go trick or treating tonight Evie"

"Poppy is taking me."

"What are the agick words?"

"Trick or treat!" Evie held out her bag.

GeeGee placed candy and cookies in the bag. She handed Evie a small black and orange flashlight.

"Whats this for GeeGee?" That my dear is a special light. It will scare off ghosts if you get afraid."

"Thanks GeeGee!"

"Go have fun dear."

"We will mom. Don't scare to many trick or treaters mom."

"Me?" GeeGee laughed. "I'll try not to."

Poppy and Evie walked down the street. They could still hear GeeGee chuckling.

"Why do we only get to see GeeGee once a year poppy?"

"Well Evie, this is the only time of year that the veil between the worlds is thin enough for her to get through."

Evie laughed. "GeeGee is a witch!"

Poppy laughed too, "yep, and guess what?"

"What?"

"So are you!"

G is for God

Many of the witches that I have talked to over the years first came to wicca or witchcraft and totally ignored the God aspect of Deity in favor of the Goddess. She had been missing in their lives for so long that these seekers total focus was on learning more about Her.

Many stayed on a primarily Goddess path but for me, that path was imbalanced as well. And though I still aspect the Goddess far more than the God, I find the balance of God/dess in ritual is hard to beat. Herne, Lugh, Curnnunos, are the primary Gods that I have used in ritual. But there are many, many more.

 What aspects of the God do you use?

Blessings, MoD

Fehu

Paraphrased slightly from Northern Mysteries and Magick by Freya Aswynn.

The first of the Runes. Fehu appears as a stylized F. The traditional meaning is Cattle/wealth. More specifically to me, moveable wealth. Back in the day, when we were tribes and clans, the Chiefs wealth was measured in the amount of cattle he had. In Rune divination, Fehu is regarded as a persons ability to make or maintain wealth.

I highly recommend the above mentioned book for anyone that is interested in Runes. Freya Aswynn has spent a good part of her life learning and living with Runes and has thus become a (the) leading expert in all aspects of the runes, lore, magick, divination, you name it! (My opinion anyway).

Blessings, MoD

Change

A little pearl of wisdom from the Wiccan clan that I am a part of with a heavy dose of paraphrasing "Everything she touches changes".

We change to grow and when we grow we change. In our group is it encouraged and expected for those that don't grow cannot facilitate growth in their future students. In order to grow you have to pull out all those shadows that are within yourself, examine them, learn from them, and then let them go. But don't think for a second that is a once and done job. Some of those shadows have been stuck in our personal closets for years. They have grown roots and have shaped the people that we have become. THOSE shadows may need to be peeled back, layer by layer, and it can often feel as if you are peeling back your own skin.

If you have those shadows (and believe me, I have never found anyone that didn't; in some form) you may need to seek counceling, either from your spiritual advisor or a professional licensed counselor.

Thats the toughest part of growth, and its a lifelong job. My facilitator calls those shadows Rats. And she was right. Those hidden rats will eat away at you, they will undermine you and they have to be dug out and exposed to the light. Once exposed, you will recognize them and eventually it will become easier to find them and you will become stronger for it.

I didn't start this to make growth sound like a scary prospect, occasionally it can be, but its worth it in the end.

Blessings, MoD

Being Human

A Spirit that wants to be seen and heard.
A Vampire that want to lead a normal life and atone for what he has done in the past.
A Werewolf that wants what he won't let himself have, a family.

They are drawn together by one commonality. All three want to Be Human. I quite like this show. Both the British and the American versions but I have to admit; the American version has much sexier actors and is easier on the eyes than the British. What does that make me? Human?

And what of their differences? The things that make them most human are their emotions. Something you rarely see in other species.

I have seen Spirits and I have sent my spirit body outside of myself on journeys. I know there are Vampires out there, self-proclaimed, psychic, et cetra. And I wouldn't be surprised to find a werewolf or two in my husbands family tree, if not a Vampire, they were from the old country.  And I KNOW without a shadow of a doubt that people who are adept can send totem animals, wether mystical, mythical, or real as messengers in the ether. And that includes werewolves.

So does any of these things make me or anyone else something other than human? hmmm. maybe. But not really. Does it make someone who is adept special? Occasionally. The thing is, the characters in the show are human, they are human plus. They were made different, not by choice, but by circumstance, and that is the difference.

We have a choice to study and practice and to work HARD to become something more than 'just human'. We can discover the spiritual nature of ourselves and our world. And we have the ability (with practice) to control and direct our emotional energy to get the positive results we want, and not leave a bloody mess behind. And THAT my friends, is what Being Human is all about. 
Blessings, MoD

Affirmations

I learned how to write affirmations early on my path. Affirmations are an easy way to state an intent. Written as if the intent has already come to pass. They can work for anyone regardless of religious affiliation, race, gender or anything else! 

So what is an affirmation? A positive statement written or spoken as truth. Examples? I thought you would never ask.

Affirmation number one: I post topics weekly to my blog. hehe. Kinda lame I know but writing this as if it has already happened sets the intent that it will happen. 

Some of my earliest attempts focused on hearth and home such as; I am a great housekeeper. (I didn't put alot of heart in that one, my house is a disaster zone) but it is an ongoing process. I have attempted for the last three years to do the Release programs that Silver Ravenwolf posts on her blog. I usually start strong and give up half way through. I apparently don't mind living in a hoard.

Another, I am a wonderful patient mother. (I have 5 kids) This is an affirmation that I would repeat, occasionally hourly, more often every several minutes when the kids were young. 

The only way to really make an affirmation work for you is to repeat it often, write it on a post it note and put it where you will see it frequently. Meditate on it. And make it obtainable. Do not set your intentions so high right away so that you give up on it when it doesn't happen right away. It would be silly for me to affirm that I have won a million dollars in the lottery, especially if I can't afford to buy a ticket. It would be more reasonable for me to state that I have saved a thousand dollars this year THEN set about making sure that it happens and repeating that affirmation. And it would be even MORE reasonable for me to state, I put fifty dollars in savings every payday. In my mind a thousand dollars seems like alot of money, fifty dollars (although still alot of money) is a much more realistic sum for me to work with. And at the end of the year, when I have saved that fifty a payday, I will have more than a thousand dollars in the bank. 1200 dollars to be exact. 

Tips for affirmations. If your affirmation has to do with saving money, write it on a post it and affix it to your checkbook, put it where you carry your money, or wrap it around your debit/credit card. That will make you think of the affirmation every time you whip open that wallet to buy something. Eventually you will start thinking, do I really need a four dollar cup of coffee? 

Start small. Start with things that are easy to obtain, things that are easy to commit too and then work your way up from there. 

Write and perform a ritual or spell around your affirmation and it's intent. 

Create vision boards for things that you want to obtain. 

Finally have fun with them, keep then positive, and reap the rewards! 

For me? This week my affirmation is; I find the beauty in my hoard.

Blessings to you! MoD

Pagan Blogging

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