Our Samhain Celebration!

BLESSED SAMHAIN AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL! Yesterday was a typically beautiful autumn day with a bit of a breeze blowing. My sister Aurora Skye and I held our annual Samhain ritual celebration in the early evening. I spent the entire week preparing everything and after adding some finishing touches, we were finally ready for this very special night ...

The sabbat stone we used on our altar was Smoky Quartz. Other gemstones and crystals may also be used such as snowflake obsidian, carnelian, lepidolite, and rhodonite.

My new black cat chalice we used for our ritual wine/libation.

Our ancestor altar set up for our ritual ceremony - adorned with photos to honor our loved ones who have passed on ...

We lit a pink votive candle to signify love and friendship.

After casting the circle and calling the four corners - the elements of west/water, north/earth, east/air and south/fire, we sealed and protected the circle with salt ...

As the veil between the world of spirit and the physical world is thin at this time of the year (most especially at Samhain), it is the perfect time for divination and connecting with our ancestors ...

Such as using pendulums, crystal ball gazing, tarot card and rune readings, etc. We chose to use our pendulums and crystal ball gazing ...

Since this is the "Witches New Year" we also performed our witches cords as well. After making our wishes for the coming year, we charged them "with postive intent by the powers of the Divine Lord and Lady" then hung them ...

After ritual, we enjoyed some DELICIOUS snacks Aurora brought for us! ...

Cranberry nut bread, dark chocolate Chex Mix, fudge graham cookies, and chocolate and vanilla decorative cupcakes! 

We both wore our pumpkin bells around our neck which we bought at "Celtic Myth & Moonlight" a couple of weeks ago for ritual - love them! ...

Some of the decorations in the altar room ...

Before our ritual celebration, we had lunch and did a bit of local shopping - one of the places we frequented was a store called, "The Gem on Penn" were we found a couple of new items ...

I found this Pisces symbol necklace, a moonstone ring with a moon face on it ... very cool!

And, in addition I bought these two chakra soaps - each soap has a gemstone in it ...

Amethyst and Carnelian soaps ...

They were giving out these neat little Halloween rub on tattoos for free at the check out register. Of course, I picked out a CAT! LOL!

From all of us here at The Wiccan Life, we wish everyone a VERY BLESSED SAMHAIN & A HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! 🎃

Fun Friday!

Getting ready for Samhain ...

Well, it looks like Samhain activity has already begun in my house. Monday night after I got home from work, I saw the glass plate that my friend Lady Sabrina Rhiannon gave my husband and I for our unity candle which we used in our wedding/handfasting broken in HALF and sitting on the kitchen table. I said to my husband, "What the hell happened? Did the cats knock it over or something?" He said, "No, we were just sitting in the living room (where I had it sitting on my coffee table) and all of the sudden I heard a loud CRACK!" He said it was not the cats or him it just BROKE - in a clean break at that - after all of these many years! Damn, someone in my house wants to be noticed. 😮

At any rate, this weekend is Samhain and my sister Aurora Skye and I are holding our yearly ritual celebration on Saturday. One thing new we are planning to do this year during our ceremony will be crystal ball gazing and pendulum divination. 

I have done very little work with scrying and crystal gazing and so I had to do a bit of rough research this week. Here is a very interesting article from The Celtic Connection's page which  I came across and I would like to share with you all ...

Crystal Ball Gazing

This technique is best if done with a Crystal Ball 2-5 inches in diameter and works best on nights of the full moon.

Note from Herne: If the purchase a Crystal Ball is not within your budget, a bowl of water with a Quartz Crystal Cluster at the bottom will suffice. True Quartz Crystal Balls can be quite expensive. Also, never substitute a resin or glass ball since they are ineffective for anything other than children's games.

Light one or two candles in a darkened, quiet room. You can hold the crystal or place it on a stand, but it should have a blue or black velvet cloth underneath it. Make sure that there are no reflections from anything showing in the ball. You can also burn incense if you wish. Patchouli works great for me.

Before beginning, center yourself. Gaze into the ball, but do not stare. Try not to blink that much. While you are gazing, breathe in and out slowly and deeply. Just relax and gaze. You will feel a sense of limitless time. Enjoy the peacefulness and simply gaze. Do this for at least 15 minutes, and increase your time by 5 minutes with each succeeding session.

Usually around the second or third session, you will notice a small cloudy glow in the center of the crystal. This is your focusing area where your visions will appear. You may get a vision on your first try, while others have to attempt it several times before seeing something. Go at your own pace.

Just a small warning: Always remember the saying "Be Careful What You Wish For" while gazing. Think about what you wish to see before gazing.

On my third session ( when I got my first vision ) I asked to see a vision of my previous life. I saw myself burning to death in a house fire. That was something that I didn't really enjoy remembering. Now I find that it is best to just gaze and receive whatever comes to me. Perhaps you can have more peaceful visions by doing that too.

There are also different forms that visions come in. You can get actual visions of places and people, or you can get symbolic pictures. Another form that visions come in are color clouds. Although no one has been successful in identifying what each color cloud means, the following has been pretty accurate for a lot of seers.

• Blue clouds symbolize success of career or business
• Gold clouds symbolize prosperity, steady cash flow, and renewed romance to come
• Gray/Dark gray symbolize ill fortune
• Black clouds symbolize some seriously bad stuff coming one's way
• Green clouds symbolize health, happiness of the heart
• Orange clouds symbolize hidden aggression and anger, troubled emotions
• Red clouds symbolize danger to come. This person must watch themselves
• Silver clouds symbolize troublesome times ahead followed by goodness
• White clouds symbolize very good fortune to come
• Yellow clouds symbolize upcoming obstacles

I have also been busy working in the altar room setting up things. Among them is our little Samhain Tree ...

And, our Ancestor altar as well ...

I am soo looking forward to Samhain - my favorite celebration at my favorite time of the year!!

Throwback Thursday: Are Orbs Real?

In photography, an orb is a typically circular artifact on an image, created as a result of flash photography illuminating a mote of dust or other particle. Orbs are especially common with modern compact and ultra-compact digital cameras.

Orbs are captured during low-light instances where the camera's flash is used. Cases include night or underwater photography, or where a bright light source is near the camera. Light appears much brighter very near the source due to the inverse-square law, which says light intensity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source. The orb artifact can result from retroreflection of light off solid particles, such as dust or pollen, or liquid particles, especially rain. They can also be caused by foreign material within the camera lens. The image artifacts usually appear as either white or semi-transparent circles, though may also occur with whole or partial color spectra, purple fringing or other chromatic aberration. With rain droplets, an image may capture light passing through the droplet creating a small rainbow effect.

Some paranormal investigators have referred to orbs appearing in photographs from allegedly haunted locations as 'ghost orbs', 'spirit orbs' or 'angel orbs', and claim them as evidence of spirit presences representing the essence or soul of a departed person, in some cases claiming that orbs have appeared on command and may have images and faces visible within them when zoomed in.

The following are merely two of my own personal true stories and experiences with orbs and the "unexplained" ...

The Bride's Best Friend

In October of 2012, I officiated a legal Wiccan handfasting for a couple who lived in Denver, PA. Toward the end of the ceremony, the bride turned to her family and friends (and unbeknownst to me) she "spoke" to her best friend who had passed away of cancer shortly before the wedding was to take place - the wedding which she was supposed to be such an important a part of. My husband had taken pics for me as, of course, I was not able to. A few days later after I had gotten my pics of the ceremony developed, I had immediately noticed an unusual orb-like image at the bottom of one of the bride's maids dresses. In fact, you can actually see her glancing down at her side at something that had so obviously caught her attention ...

The week after the wedding, the bride came to my home to pick up her official Marriage Certificate. After I showed her this particular pic, her immediate reaction was,"I knew it! I knew she was there, I could 'feel' it! I am not at all surprised."

Eric & Kim's Halloween Handfasting ~ October 28, 2012

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The Ghosts who (still) live in Gettysburg, PA

A few years ago, while attending a family reunion in York, PA, we had decided to take the Gettysburg ghost tour which included the historical battlefield. The tour guide took us all through the town and recanted personal stories of which the locals and other witnesses had shared of things they say they had seen and the ghosts and their images that roamed (and continue to roam) the streets to this day. Images and unexplained phenomena regarding the soldiers and their families who had died there. 

We were allowed to take photos and videos (back then, mostly via camcorders) of the entire tour. I remember there was one old abandoned home with a rather interesting history regarding it which the tour guide told us that due to previous paranormal activity as reported by the caretakers who upkeep the grounds, no one was allowed to enter this particular home. She also warned us that, even though we were welcome to take pictures and videos outside of this home, the energy in and around the house was so strong that many previous tourist have complained on numerous occasions that when they attempted to take pics or acquire any video footage, their batteries immediately died ... drained of all power! We all sort of shrugged our shoulders and pretty much did not think much more of it at that time.

Well, lo and behold while I was standing aside of my (then) brother-in-law who was using his camcorder up until that point during the tour, say, "I don't believe this!" (and began laughing) We both saw the red battery light go off and "POOF", no more video - completely shut off! Later that evening, my sister Robin told me that the battery came back and the camcorder was working fine.

In addition to the ghost tour, there was also a cool little museum which we visited before the tour began that was filled with dozens of orb and image photos captured by various folks who took pics during the walk through the battlefield and the town itself hanging on the walls - photos like the one Dark Elf had found above.

So, are orbs for real in most cases? Please feel free to share any experiences you may have had with them. 

The Ghost of "Mrs. Miller"

Well, since it is almost Samhain and Halloween I thought it would be the appropriate time to share a true ghost story with everyone. Years ago, I had a friend, Ginny, who bought a house on South 14th Street in Reading, PA where only she and her 10 year old son, Billy, lived. She shared some rather unsettleing stories about the events which happened there while they resided in that house.

To begin with, the woman who live there previously, "Mrs. Miller" (according to the woman's son) always wanted to die in her house, but sadly died in a hospital instead, leaving her son, Bill, to sell her house after her death. Enter my friend Ginny and her son Billy ...

She recalls the day the realtor showed her the house saying that, "I felt someone touch my shoulder, but when I looked into the big mirror in the living room, no one was there!" She remembers thinking how strange it was, but thought nothing more of it at that time. When she went back to the house with Mrs. Miller's son and daugther-in-law, she saw something even stranger - an image of a woman wearing a long white dress standing at the top of the steps to the second floor. She mentioned what she saw to them at that time telling them, "You are going to think I am crazy, but ..."  The daughter-in-law said, "They buried Bill's mother in that dress." 

Now, she decided to buy the house regardless and not long after they moved in other things began happening. One time upon coming home from picking her son Billy up from school as she walked through the front door she saw her glass rose (a gift from her deceased aunt) dangling on the edge of her living room coffee table. When she took a step toward it, it fell to the floor and broke into pieces. Other things went on as well such as blankets being thrown on the living room floor when NO ONE was home at the time - not even her son.

When Ginny decided to perform some renovations to the house, Mrs. Miller was NOT happy nor amused. Ginny recalls one evening while they were watching television in the living room her framed Footprints which she had hanging on the wall flew across the room and shatterd on the floor. When I asked Ginny one time "why" she stayed in that house after these types of events, she said, "I never really felt threatened by Mrs. Miller, she just wanted me to KNOW how she felt about someone else living in HER house."

I, myself, was in that house several times and the only time I felt strange was upstairs where the bathroom was - you had to pass the door to the attic first to get there.

Honestly, I have had my own experiences with "ghosts"/spirits in my own home, but never experienced anything close to what Ginny and her son had. More about that in a later post. 

Sunday This and That

Blessed Sunday! It would appear that the fall weather has finally arrived. Yesterday, it was much cooler and today even cooler than that. We turned the heat on in the house this morning because it is so chilly.

Last night, Chester decided to camp out in the garage for the first time. So, today I made a run to our local Pet Smart store and picked up a comfy little cat bed and a water dish for him. I hope he uses them! ...

A heavy blanket is forthcoming. We still have to get him as well as all of our house cats flea treatment before we can even think about giving Chester shelter downstairs in our basement for the up-comig winter months, Fingers crossed.

Some gratuitous cat pics - Ginger posing pretty ...

And Leo begging for MORE of his cat food as usual. Poor guy never gets fed ... LOL!

Merlin James in a rare moment of relaxing ...

Leo decided to take over the other cat bed I bought today ...

Butterscotch just chilling on the couch ...

And finally, here is Bill's song pic of the week ...

Food for Thought Friday

 Happy Friday! 

This week, I sent my buddy Moose a Halloween card. My friend Renee (Moose's mommy) responded in kind ...

"Thank you so much for Moose's Halloween card! He's proudly showing it off!! Perfect timing to cheer him up as he was at the vet again yesterday for that gooey eye."

Have a blessed day, my friends!!