For this week’s challenge, I wanted to write about my Samhain celebration experience, but things didn’t go as planned.
With Halloween festivities and Samhain celebrations coming this week, this is a perfect opportunity to take some time to honor those who no longer have a physical presence in this world.
Having experienced the death of two family members in a short amount of time (my grandmother in August and then my mother-in-law in September), I really wanted to set some time aside this Samhain to be purposeful with my celebrations. However, life had other plans. The day started out like any other Saturday, but as the day progressed, things just kept happening that were out of my control.
By the time evening rolled around, I was out of spoons for anything witchcraft-related. I didn’t even really have the spoons to set up an ancestor altar. Instead, I spent the night in bed relaxing and watching television. I did light a tealight candle and said a small, quick prayer, but that was not everything I had in mind.
Instead, I didn’t do my spellwork until this afternoon, which is completely fine, but in thinking about the stuff that’s going on in my apartment and just this area in general, I had an epiphany of sorts.
Spirits are around us all the time. They are in our homes, in our objects, in the natural world around us. These Spirits are the Land spirits – yes, Land with a capital “L” – and they hold dominion over physical places. I’m just learning to work with and identify the Land spirits because it is an important part of my witchcraft practice, but I think the Land spirits and Guardians where I live are just upset. I don’t think they like the human presence here, let alone the presence of humans who don’t really care about others, human, animal, and nature alike.
Side note: if you want a good article on working with the Genius Loci (the land and Spirits around you), Althaea Sebastiani wrote a great article on it. You can find it here!
Let me explain. We moved to Florida in June of this year from Oregon. The feeling that I get from living here in Florida is very different than the feeling in Oregon. The apartment we ended up moving into is awful . The people have treated us horribly, the apartment just isn’t what it was supposed to be, and bad things just keep happening. And we aren’t the only people in the apartment complex experiencing issues, either. On Samhain, the ceiling in our bathroom started leaking. This isn’t a new occurrence. It’s happened several times before, but this time it was like a waterfall in our bathroom. It leaked for a good 30 minutes before slowing down, but it also took our emergency maintenance person 45 minutes to come out and even look at it.
The Land here isn’t happy. We are surrounded by large Grandfather Oak trees covered in Spanish Moss. These trees are old and wise and I can feel Them and Their presence. I think They are finally getting fed up with the nastiness of the people that live in this area. There is trash everywhere. The maintenance and apartment management company just don’t care about the people that live here. Moving into this apartment complex has been one of the worst experiences of my life – and that’s not an exaggeration.
All of these things happening have just made me realize that we need out of this area. Not just because of the things happening in our home (and the violence in the complex – two shootings?!) but because the Land doesn’t want us here anymore. I am respecting the Land and not reaching out. It is not my place in this instance to try and make peace with Them. They were here first. They guard this place. They make the rules.
And maybe you’re right. We have been looking at houses and I think we’ve found a good one that fits our living situation (and it is also surrounded by these beautiful Grandfather Oaks) and we just need to meet with the realtor and see what the next steps are. Also, I love the image you posted 
This was a very thoughtful piece to read and I thank you for sharing it! 
and it hasn’t really hit me yet but hopefully if all goes well, we move in on December 14.
I’m looking now but realistically, I won’t be ready until maybe February. I’m just trying to keep my head up for now and not focus on the negativity. How do you cope when your environment gets the best of you? I’m open to suggestions.
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I miss Oregon a bit, but I do like Florida for the most part.