Samhain 2020 & Shop update

By: GreenWitch
Posted: 25th October 2020

Samhain Newsletter 31 October 2020

Well, we arrive at Samhain, the Celtic New Year where it ends one year and starts the next. All-Hallow’s eve begins at dusk on 31st October – what is now call Halloween. Such a year as 2020 has been, of course it falls on a Saturday night on a full moon with Mercury retrograde!! No wonder Nicola hasn’t let the pubs re-open in the central belt – would have been carnage!! I thought that was it with the problems encountered this year, and I could begin the Celtic New Year by re-opening on 3rd, when Mercury goes back to normal…but then let’s put in a Friday 13th in the mix too…it certainly is the year that just keeps on giving…and then came the 2020 finale…more later!!

So, back to Samhain and the night of the dead… 

Winter has officially begun and it’s time for the Earth to rest. The darkness falls early, the birds have flown to warmer climates and the animals are tucked safely away in hibernation for the winter. The mists give the nights a spooky feel at this ghostly time of the year. The curtain between this world and the next is drawn back, and every witch should carry out some form of divination on this night, whether cards, crystal sphere, Ogham or runes to see what the next year holds (surely it can only get better!). Decorate your altar with apples, fallen autumn leaves and orange or black candles, plus the form of divination you are going to use later on. Meditate if that is your thing, and invite family members who have passed over to join you and help you with any advice. Light a candle to remember lost loved ones, place a light in the window to help spirit find their way, whilst keeping evil at bay and place salt and bread on the doorstep, for sheer indulgence of the departed. Don’t forget to party too. Have a drink to those who have gone before, toasting their life and their part in yours. As we go into winter, it reminds us that Death is a part of life: the Earth too is now at rest after all the work of the year. Death leads to decay which then fertilises new life – and so it begins again, which is why the colour of Samhain is black as well as orange, the colour of Fire and fallen leaves. Hollow and light a swede or pumpkin lamp, and await your late-night visitors, remembering to treat those on this plane that come by your door, if allowed: they do represent the God of Mischief escaped for the night! Halloween will probably be quite reserved for the kids this year, with trick or treating limited if allowed at all…but that doesn’t mean people cannot have fun in the house dunking for apples, sparklers in the garden and a suggestion was that houses in the neighbourhood place pumpkins in their window and leave sweets at the door, let kids still come around and count the pumpkins all dressed up in their scariest finery. No trick or treat at the door but sweets can be left in a large bowl for local kids to add to their bag. 

The New Year for the Celts represented new beginnings. If you are having a bonfire, write a habit you want rid of and throw it into the flames: give you and yours a fresh outlook as we head into winter!

Protection in a stone…

If I want to feel protected from negative energies or entities, I use black & brown earthy stones, personally selecting smoky quartz, black onyx or black tourmaline in jewellery: you always know where I am and what I am dealing with by the colours of clothing and jewellery I wear on a daily basis…so, here is my team for this winter…

One of my favourite crystals is the beautiful smoky quartz. Earthy, protective, grounding, like having the earth around you like a blanket, keeping you safe and sound. In days gone by, thin pieces were used in glasses as natural sunglasses, and the Scottish smoky, Cairngorm, was used in clan jewellery and in the heads of their skein dubh!

I find it quite passionate, unifying and lucky, and love it for getting rid of negative patterns. If I am going through a difficult time and in need of a little support, I will bring out the smoky quartz: like quartz, it can be used for all things, but I find it gentler and it looks after you…like a hug after a rotten day! 

Onyx is one I like when I need to not be distracted in my jobs to be done. It defends when things go wrong (no, very seldom have you been hexed!) and protects when in battle or conflict, keeping psychic attack and black magic away. It supports during decision making and sorting out problems, especially if you lack confidence in your actions:  it is like the saying: ‘face your fears and do it anyway’…for that, you need black onyx!! 

Black tourmaline (or Schorl) is grounding and protective whilst sending negative energy back to source, dispelling that negativity away and back to Earth. Like Onyx, it dispels negativity and that feeling of doom and gloom, yet lifts you away from negativity and guides you towards happiness. You can also find tiny needles of it in quartz and are just as effective, as quartz acts like a battery, so makes beautiful picture jewellery.

Negativity can be a real problem through winter, and I expect this winter will seem gloomier than usual, so maybe one of this little team of mine will just help you a little to make it through the darkness to the Spring!

Spell to dispel negative emotions…

Most of us have gone through a tough time this year, one way or another, and that emotion should be gotten rid of as soon as possible so as not to lead you down the spiral of gloom and doom. 

Here is a way of using your dark stone to let that dark emotion go, when, no matter what you do, it simply won’t fade or dispel: you will need healing incense and your stone plus a peaceful zone with no disturbance… so, switch off your phone, light healing incense and sit comfortably with your dark stone in hand. Now…

Allow light to light your solar plexus and come out from your belly button in a bubble until the light surrounds you.

Hold the dark stone over your solar plexus and allow that anger, hurt or resentment to flow into the stone.

Think of how this emotion arose. Does it have a colour? Is it associated with an Element?

Now, put the stone on your forehead for clarity of thought, then to your heart for healing. Then simply say:

            With this stone, negativity be gone

            Water cleanse it back where it belongs

See that negative emotion and project it into the stone, then visualise it all being sealed inside.

Now put in a sealed bag/box until you can take to open running water such as a river, waterfall or the sea. When at the water’s edge, scream the last of the emotion into the stone, repeat the above rhyme and throw the stone into the water as far as you can. The water has now taken it away, so leave it there, return and find your peace! If at the beach or water’s edge, and you can find a water-tumbled dark stone, you can do this in the moment too. If you are far from running water (not possible in Scotland), then use a hose pipe or fast running tap and bury the stone!

Update on shop

As many of you will be aware, a freak tropical storm raged for 9 hours overnight on the 11/12 August over the River Forth, and badly flooded our village. The storm was very exciting, watching the constant lightning till our eyes couldn’t stay open anymore. The morning revealed the truth behind the night of constant rain & thunder as we awoke to a flooded village. My shop is in the dip and as the mass of water, mud and grit made its way down the hills and through the village to the sea, the mass of water which had taken out the harbour bridge on its way, had left quite a few houses and shops in a muddy mess. 2months on and 3 businesses along the same stretch of road are still trying to get back to normality, mine being one of them, and the harbour bridge between the two sides of the village is still missing. Turbo dryers took 725 litres out of my little shop over 5 weeks, though I stopped counting when the water started to subside, and at the end of September, the shop was finally declared dry! Finally I could put the shop back in order and get back to normality, so ordered new stock, then decided to give the shop a lift for the winter, so bought new lighting & curtains and would give my shop its much needed tlc in the New year. 

On speaking with the insurance mid-October, they were still awaiting my ‘dry’ certificate, (Mercury retrograde, of course the much-needed paperwork was going to be delayed) - so was told I could not yet re-open to the public, so began allowing some orders and collections like in lockdown. In the meantime, along came 2 repair companies to check out the property away from what you and I can see. I thought it was mainly the back stock room that was most damaged and knew the walls needed repairing and definitely a new floor but figured the work could be sorted in January, so could probably get back open from Halloween through to Hogmanay. However, this is 2020, the year of the unknown and one that just keeps on giving, so when I was told that the shop would need to be dismantled from fireplace right through to the stockroom, all stock packed into boxes and shelving etc cleared for the laying of a whole new floor, there was the cherry on the icing of the 2020 cake!! Looking around my little shop last week, the enormity of what I had been told began to sink in. That freak storm that I thought would close me down for a couple of weeks tops has managed to close my shop down for the rest of the year!! 

And so we begin the arduous task of boxing up the shop stock. We are going to begin the packing in the stock room so, if you need anything that is in the actual shop, PM/e-mail me to book a time to call in and shop for your witchy goodies, and stock up with the essentials, because the shop will be closed down from 5 November until 2021. 

I don’t know how long it is going to take to rebuild the shop once the repairs have been finished but hopefully things will begin to get back to some form of normality sometime in January, when we can hopefully begin 2021 with a flourish and get ready to celebrate (if we can) as I make 25 years of the Green Witch! 

I shall overcome and I will be back… 

Moon Times:

Full Moon:        31 Oct @ 14.49 hrs      New Moon:       15 Nov @ 05.07 hrs

Full Moon:        30 Nov @ 09.29 hrs     New Moon:       14 Dec @ 16.16 hrs

Mercury begins to go forward on 3rd November so we can breathe a sigh of relief. Its retrograde lesson this time was to finally deal with problems that have not been completely sorted and let go before we can actually advance forward, hence why I think my shop needs the love and tlc now, not later, and why I am not resisting it being fully closed down for the necessary repairs and restoration to be done. The challenge of 2020 has been a testing one for most of us but, as one who tries to look for the silver lining, I am going to embrace the fact that I will have a lovely new floor courtesy of the insurance, we can redesign the shop a little, give it a thorough cleansing and then come back raring to rebuild the business to a new high, when this year is finally done!! 

In the meantime, please stay safe, stay well and stay smiling

Chris Macdonald (alias the Green Witch)

Christine Macdonald, Mystique Moments, 59-61 High Street, ABERDOUR, Fife, Scotland, KY3 0SJ

Tel: 01383 860106 Website: www.greenwitch.co.uk E-mail: [email protected]

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