What (Real ) Witches do on Halloween

To forestall any argument or bad feelings and bruised toes, let me start out by saying that if one walked into a room with ten Witches in it, one would find at least 23 different and often mutually exclusive opinions and 5 or six newsletters. It is not my intention to represent myself as any sort of expert of Traditions not my own.


A tradition, for the uninitiated, is like a denomination of Christianity. I am not even claiming to be an expert on Wicca. I am claiming to be an intelligent human with opinions, beliefs and experience to share.





That said, I will talk about what my Coven called Pleiades of the Tradition/Temple Caer Sidi did this Samhain - the Celtic name for the festival celebrated at the end of October.





Dates are slippery things. as every parent knows. And, kids operate on a different calendar than grown-ups. We have Mabon,Yule, and Samhain. They have Turkey Day, Present Day, and Candy Night, Once my children were mobile. I realized that, to preserve the fragile peace in my home, I had better not mess with Candy Night. Besides that, our Tradition uses a Lunar Calendar, and days run from sunset to sunset , Samhain would be over before the candles were lit.


Yule was not a problem-no kid in his/her eight mind is gonna complain about getting his/her presents four days SOONER than their Classmates! Consequently I proposed to the Coven that until our children were old enough to forgo the usual Halloween shenanigans, we would celebrate our religious holiday within a three day window of opportunity. The parents saw the wisdom of my suggestion, and no one else really had a reason why not, so my idea was adopted unanimously.





Tonight, I will watch scary movies on TV. My son will go out masquerading as a High School student (he's 16). My daughter will probably be a vampire.





This explains, I hope, why we did the Ritual of Samhain Thuersday night instead of tonight. My students are far flung nowadays, and have busy lives of their own. My husband of 28 years and the Elder of the Coven made use of my little 8' by 10' cubicle - pulling the curtains around us closed, and breathing a silent prayer that neither of my room-mates would take it into her head to need/want a nurse while we worked.

We started by casting a virtual Circle. Hospital rules and City Fire ordinances preclude the use of our usual candles and incense. We joined hands and pulled in energy, constructing a Circle in my tiny space. I read the second half of the Myth of the Goddess - a prose poem that describes a version of the Persephone Myth. The first half is read at Mabon, ending with the Priestess asking the God of the Underworld why He is the enemy of Life. In the second half, she receives teaching about why the seasons change, and why Witches do not believe there was ever war in Heaven. I looked over at our Elder, and saw him surreptitiously wipe a tear away. He has heard this story every year for nearly 30 years, and he gets misty every time. If he is reading this- That is one of the reasons I love you, Anarion.

We could not use candles or inscense, and I had to have electric light to read, and we did not waer robes, but Anarion did smuggle in a tablespoon or towo of a decent red wine, and i had saved some crackers from dinner. for Cakes and Wine, It is true that things in Circle happen in a place that is not a place in a time that is not a time. As we cast our tiny, claustrophobia-inducing Circle, the realities of my situation mlelted away. I stood in the Circle with my Brothers and invoked the Ancient Ones as if I stood in the grandest Temple on Earth. We reverently shared the cup and the bread, remebered our Brothers and Sisters who had passed on, prayed that we would always remember the Burning Times and never become oppressors in our turn.

The settings were spartan and the attendance meager, but those things didn't matter as we prayed, shared, and dreamed about the coming season of Winter.


When the simple rite of remeberance was over, we released the energies we had summoned for the Circle, and settled down to the feast - Anarion had brought fruit, bread and cheese, and Seqouia had provided more cheese and garlic nan, an Indian bread he knows I love.

We talked and laughed and enjoyed each other's company. It wa s a weird and in some ways impoverished Samhain. I can no longer dance, we had no privacy for a Great Rite, and I did not have the necessaries for the scrying I usally do at Samhain. But, when it was all done, and we were ready to part, I asked the ritual question of our Elder-"Is your soul satisfied?" And, I believed him when he said it was.
I know running a Coven is like herding cats under the rosiest conditions, and these ain't them, but this Samhain was what a Wiccan Rite should be- warm, loving, balancing mirth and reverence. I think our depaerted Brothers and Sisters must have gone home smiling. I know we did.