Tag Archive | samhain

The 13 Full Moons in 2020

The Full Moon

That Means A Blue Moon

Every month of the year will see a Full Moon. But Blue Moons, when there’s a 2nd full moon in the same month, do not happen all that often. Maybe once a year, or if you’re lucky twice a year. Our last Blue Moon was on Friday December 13th, 2019. Another auspicious event.

For 2020, we’ll only see one Blue Moon on the calendar. But what a night for it to show up! According to the Farmer’s Almanac Moon Calendar, October will see it’s first full moon on October 1st. And another on Saturday, October 31st, at 10:49am eastern U.S. time.

In the world of Pagan Metaphysics, we call the observance of the Moon, Esbat days, or Ritual days. These phases are where we combine the energy of the Divine Goddess, in this case in the form of Grandmother Moon, with your own energy, for magikal working. Continue reading →

Ænigma PodCast: Samhain and Halloween

Oct30

October 2019 – Week 5 The Ænigma Project:
Available Now!

The Ænigma Project PodCast, where we discuss the paranormal, close encounters with the unusual and interactions with the supernatural. We’ll play Truth or Tale and share a little paranormal news now and then too.

Join Paul Cagle, Sushi and Spring as we provide information from our differing points of view. Paul the Paranormal Investigator, Sushi our investigator and resident skeptic and Spring the Metaphysical/Spiritual teacher.

Our PodCasts are available for download, for Free, on iTunes, Stitcher, Spreaker or listen to our current episode directly from our website at aenigmaproject.com.

This week we’ll be talking about:
Samhain and Halloween
Pagan holidays are divided into Quarter and Cross-Quarter observances. Samhain (pronounced Sow-en) is the first Quarter festival on the Celtic Wheel. It marks the end of summer and the beginning of the Celtic New Year. Halloween is a Christian Holiday created by the early Church to convert Pagans into Christianity. While both events have similar themes, they are decidedly different. Especially in today’s Commercial world. Join us for a little history and personal observances. 🎃

Our Upcoming Shows his Month, October 2019:

Week 1 – Amityville Horror – uploaded on 10/05
Week 2 – Haunted ships – uploaded 10/09
Week 3 – Our Free Form show – uploaded 10/16
Week 4 – Ghosts, Ghouls and Goblins – uploaded 10/23
Week 5 – Samhain/Halloween – uploaded 10/30
– Don’t miss The History of Samhain and the Evolution of Halloween here on Reflections

Next month for November, we’re covering Cryptids. First up is the legend of Mothman.

Send us your questions, topic suggestions or just let us know what you think of our show. We might use one of your question in our next Free Form Show! Visit our website AenigmaProject.com/contact-us/ and drop us a line!

View a list of all our PodCast Episodes.
Or learn more about Spring’s history with The Ænigma Project.

Merry Samhain and Happy Halloween – 2019

Oct29

Image from: Megan Granata

Samhain and All Hallows Eve

Samhain
~ by Annie Finch
In the season leaves should love,
since it gives them leave to move through the wind, towards the ground they were watching while they hung, legend says there is a seam stitching darkness like a name.

Now when dying grasses veil earth from the sky in one last pale wave, as autumn dies to bring winter back, and then the spring, we who die ourselves can peel back another kind of veil that hangs among us like thick smoke.

Tonight at last I feel it shake. I feel the nights stretching away thousands long behind the days till they reach the darkness where all of me is ancestor.

I move my hand and feel a touch move with me, and when I brush my own mind across another,
I am with my mother’s mother. Sure as footsteps in my waiting self, I find her, and she brings arms that carry answers for me, intimate, a waiting bounty.

“Carry me.” She leaves this trail through a shudder of the veil, and leaves, like amber where she stays, a gift for her perpetual gaze.
~

It’s that time of year again. The End of Summer and final Harvest Festival of Fall. For those on a Celtic Path, it’s the Celtic New Year. And for those follow Christian Wicca (yes, that’s a thing), it’s the celebration of the Dead. Here on Reflections we’ve shared information and news about our spiritual observations within Pagan Metaphysics. Take some time and look back over the years.

Hoping you have a fantastic evening of Trick-or-Treating,
with lots of fun, frights and genuine laughter!
and
May you and yours have a wonderfully blessed and exciting Samhain!

Many Blessings,
Spring

Merry Samhain and Happy Halloween – 2018

Oct31

Celebrating The Holidays

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
~ William Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Hoping you have a fantastic evening of Trick-or-Treating,
with lots of fun, frights and genuine laughter!
and
May you and yours have a wonderfully blessed and exciting Samhain!

Many Blessings,
Spring

U.S. Counties Want To Move Halloween

Oct27

Upsetting Witches

It happens every year. Some County official somewhere in the U.S., wants to move the observance of Halloween for little Trick-or-Treaters and I suddenly get hundreds of emails from practicing Witches about how this angers them to no end. Litterally, beginning around October 1st, I start receiving emails. By the end of the month I’ve received over 200 when all is said and done.

This year, I’m up to 167 so far. with less than a week to go. Hopefully that means word is getting out. But the general sentiment is often the same, “What right do these people have to move OUR holiday!” Here’s my question in response, Why are you upset, Halloween IS NOT our holiday?

Whether you use the Gaelic pronunciation “Sow-en”, “Sow-ween”, “Sah-ween” or the Americanized version “Sam-hain” (yes that is an acceptable pronunciation), Samhain is still the biggest holiday on the Pagan Calendar.

Samhain is a Gaelic word, and it translates to “Summer’s End”. It marks the end of the growing season and the transition into Winter. It also marks the Celtic New Year and it is observed with both reverence and of course a big party celebration. Continue reading →

Merry Samhain & Happy Halloween 2017

Oct30

Image from: Megan Granata

Merry Samhain

Samhain is a Gaelic word that literally translates to “Summer’s End”. It’s pronounced as sow-en, sow-ween, and yes, for some the Americanized Sam-hain really is acceptable. The holiday reminds us that things change and that includes the words we use, how we use them and even how we say them.

For the Celts, it marks the new year and the renewal of the Wheel of Life. We remember that the only constant in the Divine Universe is that things change. How they change depends on you.

At this time of the year, it’s also a time for many to report on the History of Halloween. Most reports focus on the early Christian influences for All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day. Some really do try to explain the evolution of the early Pagan practices that evolved over time to modern secular celebrations of the scary American observances for kids and adults young at heart.

Today I read an article from one of my favorite magazines, The Old Farmer’s Almanac about the “Origins of Halloween Traditions“. It’s a nice overview article and does have some good information. But like many similar articles, it skims over the Pagan influences. I get that. A lot of people really don’t want to link the modern holiday and American celebrations with Pagans. That might anger some Pagans out there. But I approach the issue in a “pick your battles” sort of way. Continue reading →

Merry Samhain & Happy Halloween

Oct29

Image from: Megan Granata

For the Celts, it marks the new year and the renewal of the Wheel of Life. We remember that all things move and change through observances of the changing seasons in the explosion of color (in fall or spring). The only constant in the Divine Universe is that things change. How they change depends on you. For what you think, say and do create the world around you.

Samhain is seen as the night when the dead come through the veil of the Otherworld and visit their living relatives and friends to join in ritual celebrations. This makes Samhain one of the most perfect times to communicate with spirits and honor the loved ones lost during this past year. Continue reading →

Merry Beltaine and Samhain

May1

May Day Bouquet

It’s May Day!

Here in the northern hemisphere it’s May Day, the official start of spring. A time to celebrate the return of the Sun and the warm days of summer. To prepare for the growing season and the celebration of the return of life.

Known as the Festival of Fire, Beltaine honors both the union of male and female, and the return of the Sun God, Bel. By the Solar Calendar, the holiday is celebrated on May 1st. But by the Lunar Calendar it’s honored on May 6th. To learn more about this holiday, visit Beltaine: The Fire Festival.

The Old Farmers Almanac has this to say about May Day:
Ancient spring rites that related human fertility to crop fertility gave birth to most modern May Day festivities. May 1 is the traditional day to crown the May queen, dance around the maypole, perform mummers’ plays, and generally celebrate the return of spring. Although our Pilgrim fathers were horrified by these reminders of a pagan past and outlawed all such activities, the maypole dance remains an enduring event. In Great Britain, the custom of “bringing in the May” involves gathering “knots,” or branches with buds, on the eve or early morning of May 1. In England, a favorite branch is hawthorn. In Scotland and Wales, people choose the rowan, or mountain ash. In North America, we often select forsythia, lilac, or pussy willow branches to bring spring and the prospect of new life into our homes.

Making a May Day basket is also one of these fairly modern traditions that can be shared by Pagan and non-Pagan alike. One of my favorite celebration items is making a May Day bouquet. These flower filled bouquets are most often in a cone shape, hold blooming flowers of your liking and hung on the front door handle.

But what about the seasonal changes in the southern hemisphere? They’re entering into fall, not spring. Continue reading →

Merry Samhain & Happy Halloween

Oct31

Photo by Dennis Dow, Woodland Park Zoo

For some this holiday is a festival that is celebrated over a period of days. From 1 night, to 3 or even a full week of 7. Some even take 9 full days to recognize the Triple Goddess of Maiden, Mother and Crone to honor the transitions of the Wheel, Circle or Cycle of life. Continue reading →

Spring Appeared On KAOI Radio Hawaii

Oct29

~ Pagan Metaphysics with Author Springwolf ~

From time to time I make appearances for lectures, workshops, book signings and interviews. We share the dates, locations and information about these events on the Appearance page here on Springwolf Reflections.

~ 10/28/2014 On Talk Story With Cindy Paulos ~
My dear friend Rev. Cindy Paulos invited me to join her show “Talk Story” on KAOI in Maui Hawaii. We shared a few moments to discuss how the Pagan holiday of Samhain is practiced, what it represents and how it inspired the Christian holiday of All Hallows Eve, also known as Halloween. Along with a little about What Is Paganism. The segment is about 11 minutes long and you can listen to it through the audio player below.

KAOI Radio Group on the island of Maui provides several innovated radio stations to Hawaii. From great music to NewsTalk and original Community Views programing. Continue reading →

"Believe In Yourself, Even When No One Else Does."
~ Harvey McKay ~
~~~~~~~~
“Take a chance on faith. Not religion, but faith.
Not hope, but faith.
I don’t believe in hope. Hope is a beggar.
Hope walks through the fire and Faith leaps over it.”
~ Jim Carrey ☆ 2014
~~~~~~~~
“I describe myself as a simple Buddhist monk. No more, no less. And I am one of the seven billion human being. Basically we are the same… your emotion, my emotion, your mind, my mind.., same physical. So I always look [at it] that way. We are the same.”
~ Dalai Lama 2012 ~
~~~~~~~~
"Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
~ Bruce Lee 1971