Happy Samhain!

Samhain is a complicated festival; there is much going on. It's the final harvest: the fields are barren of grain and fruit and the animals that cannot be sustained through the winter are slaughtered for their meat. This is considered the New Year by many Wiccans. It is one of two times a year when the veil between the world of the living and the world of spirits is the thinnest. Both can cross over it easily during this time. In the nature symbolism, the Lord has reached the end of his time and dies. Without his light, the winter days are cold and short.

Since the veil between worlds is thin, communication with spirits of those who have passed in the previous year are common. This also makes it an excellent night for divination.

On this night, with the passing of the previous year, I commune with the people who have left this incarnation before me, and with my guides who may have special messages for me. I also do some form of divination, this year will be tarot cards, to get a feel for the coming year. The last part of my ritual involves giving to the Crone the things that I do not wish to carry with me into the new year.

My Samhain ritual changes only slightly from year to year. I'll tell you all about it starting tomorrow.

(And for those of you in the southern hemisphere, Happy Beltaine to you!)

Up and Running

Today is not the day to elaborate on what I did for this past Esbat. It is, however, the day that I am happy to report that the holding page is gone, and you can now access the Arcanum in all its incomplete glory. I hope you enjoy and learn from what you find there, and come back often as more information will be added periodically as time permits.

Please feel free to send your thoughts to me at fyrecreek@thesaurusarcanum.com.

A Small Update

Well, really small. It is that my coworker had finished looking over things as she had offered and I accepted. She presented me with some grammatical suggestions, and said the layout is good, in her opinion. That was the important question, of course!

I have asked some dear friends to look over the lot of it as well. And while they're doing that (and I am assuming they will do that for me), I have a few things to finish writing. When the first batch of articles are complete, and when I have considered the opinions of the people who matter, I should be officially up and running. Yay! It will be ready in some form by Samhain, if not sooner. This is a promise I make to myself.

The charm I crafted on the Esbat was not only appreciated by my coworker and her husband, but their cat really loved it too. So much that she tried to dig it up. And tried again. And again. There is no catnip in there, but I guess the feline knows special magick when she smells it.