@Medea
Wow!, just Wow!
Garnet
Challenge Entry
Well, I wrote something but canāt get it to rhyme. But thatās okay, I think itās good anyhow. Here ya go:
Samhain Prayer by Amethyst
Blessed Crone, the veil between our world and other worlds thins,
the nights are getting longer, and the sun is weaker. Winter is coming.
It is a time of endings, of beginnings, of change.
Grant me the courage to look inside myself, to see what I need to harvest for the winter months.
Blessed God, we miss Your light. It is the time for you to rest among our ancestors, our blessed dead. Let my parents know I miss them, that I think of them often and wish they were here. Protect me from those spirits wishing me harm, and release them to the light with love.
Thank you for listening to me, now and always.
Blessed be.
That looks simply delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Challenge Entry
Iāve always loved this time of year in the Northern hemisphere as it draws us back in - into our homes, into our inner lives and worlds. Also, itās the start of so many holidays designed to keep us busy and active as the days grow shorter.
Baking and cooking have traditionally been important parts of this season as well.
I have this recipe listed as a Fall Pancake recipe, but in reality, itās great any time of year.
Fall Pancake Recipe
Basic recipe:
4 cups flour
1/2 - 1 cup of sugar to taste*
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2.5 cups milk
1 cup of vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
3 eggs
2 tsp salt
Optional extras for Fall:
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ginger
or alternatively 2 tsp pumpkin spice or allspice
3-4ml Vanilla extract
2-3ml Rum extract
1/2 cup coconut shavings
1/2 raisins
1/2 chocolate chips
1/2 toffee pieces
- For diabetics or anyone wanting to reduce sugar intake, consider a sugar substitute. I often use 50/50 sugar and sucralose, or only sucralose.
Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Lightly mix the liquid ingredients together in a separate bowl. Then pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, whisking until well incorporated, but not too much!
Empty a full ladle of batter onto the frying pan until lightly brown on both sides.
Enjoy with a cup of coffee, tea and condiments such as syrup, jelly or chocolate sauce.
Alternatively, this batter can be poured into a muffin or cake pan and topped with streusel (equal parts flour and brown sugar, some cinnamon and enough vegetable oil to make it crumbly).
Thanks!
@Wysteria_Norn hi!
- I wanted to let you know I just made the words Challenge Entry larger & bold while keeping it in Italics for ease of finding the entries within the general conversations
I absolutely love the recipe though for the pancakes. My family loves pancakes & we are always looking for new ways to make them or add to them for the season or upcoming holidays & sabbats!
I hope you donāt mind if I add the recipe(s) to our collection with credit to you for it. I think they will be great as the days continue to get shorter & we are inside more. Plus, sometimes we have Big Breakfast for dinner
Challenge Entry
This year will be our first year celebrating Halloween as the witchās new year. Iām excited! Though Iāve been weaving in pagan traditions and folklore for a few years.
I love this time of year. Before embracing a pagan path, Iāve always loved Halloween. Even though both of my kids are basically grown, my daughter and I still love it and celebrate it. We always watch Disneyās āSkeleton Danceā on the first of October (something I grew up with), and we try to take time to enjoy the fog, falling leaves, cold, and snow once it falls. We love embracing the spooky, witchy feeling of the season, but also death as part of the cycle.
As part of our yearly tradition, sheāll be carving a pumpkin as well.
Hereās a link to Skeleton Dance, if youāve never heard of it. Itās almost 100 years old.
We set out more decorations outside this year, including two ghosts in one of our trees, and more skeletons for our graveyard.
I also made patchwork witchy skirts for my daughter and I. We included some magical fabric that has witchy tools and cats, as well as glow in the dark skulls!
Things we plan on doing for Halloween / Samhain:
I hope to do a ritual fire again soon. My daughter and I love fire gazing and spending time outside, especially late at night. A month ago, I purchased our first small fire pit with clean burning wood pellets. Weāve always wanted our own fire.
A photo of our little portable fire pit
I plan on doing a small death ritual on Halloween during the day with my daughter, based on a recent weekly coven ritual here. Iāll be using this tarot card:
Death card from Mystical Cats Tarot
I hope to also bake cookies with her on Halloween. Itās a recipe I found online, but Iām calling it āmoon cookiesā from here on out, as we will dip them in powdered sugar (half / all / none) based on the moon cycle. We mostly honor the new / dark, half, and full moons. This Halloween will be a perfect half moon, so weāll be dipping the dough balls half in powdered sugar.
Fun fact: I was born on a perfect half moon, so the half moon has always been a big deal to me!
Hereās the recipe:
Most importantly, weāll be remembering our ancestors, specifically my father.
He was incredibly close with my kids while they were little, and was a huge influence throughout my life. Iāve felt him close to us through the years after he passed. His presence has been fading, but on Halloween night over the past few years, I feel him strongly. I bought a candle that made me think of him (I use the candle each year), and we buy his favorite candy and sit it out all night while we have corn bread, chili, and watch Dracula (Bell Lugosiās, of course!). Weāve had that dinner tradition based on doing trunk or treating with my father when the kids were little. I feel like heās still there with us each year when we set out the candle and candy for him.
(I might try to also do salted caramels for my brother. I feel heās fully moved on, but I miss him too.)
Hereās the candle and my dadās favorite candy, along with a cat statue I repainted like a skeleton. This was a photo from the first year we set things out for my father.
Happy coming Halloween / Samhain to everyone who is celebrating it!
Edited for missing photos and formatting.
@crystal5 Ok, Iām confused. First of all, these pictures are absolutely beautiful, but are they taken in the same day? I ask because in Upstate New York we can have all four seasons in one day. Blessed Be
@SpanishWitchy I think that is awesome that you still keep a family ritual going that can put a smile on your family. Family values are diminishing. Thanks for the positive entry, Blessed Be
@Garnet That is only a few thatās public knowledge. There are many more but I have some of my own personal experiences and miracles. Maybe there will be a Weekly Witchy Challenge that I can incorporate some of them in the Challenge. Blessed Be
When you mentioned The Cape I was thrown right back to my grandmothers house that was there. The smells, the Spells, the curiosity I had as a child. Thank you for bringing me back to that space!
It is a pretty magical place for those of us that practice & we are a bit of an outdoorsy family. Where my husband works they do a lot of work in the Woods Hole & Sippewisset area so Iāve learned all kinds of ways to ānativeā travel through backroads & see the different areas of beaches & lighthouses then thereās farm land & the different woodsy areas & conservation walking areas the bike pathā¦ we really donāt get too bored thatās for sure! Somehow I missed all the outer ways to get down to Woods Hole aside from that main road right off the highway that are much more fun to drive & the scenery is gorgeous through there, in the last 20 yearsā¦ 7 of those years I worked in banks that had branches in Woods Hole that I would help out at but the branches were a straight shot & not very far into the main town at all so there was thatā¦
Iām glad it brings back such great memories & entices your senses to all good things too! I tried living away from the this coast beforeā¦ I wound up being called back. I remember just saying I miss my oceanā¦ & that was when I was in Austin, TX. When I went to KYā¦ I was beside myself that I couldnāt go to the beach when I needed to for space or to think or to watch the wavesā¦ whateverā¦ it almost hurtā¦ so I know that I definitely canāt live in a landlocked state & that a major ocean has to be within driving distance to me I came back in 1998 then moved to Cape Cod permanently in 2002. I had always lived on the coast of MA though or the South Shore? Not sure what that area would be called really because we have our own slang for it, so sorry if there is a bit of confusion with that one.
I still tell my kids about when I would spend summers here as a kid at my Grandmotherās house with my mom & my Dad would commute from the Cape to closer to Boston for work every day so we could be on the Cape & playing on the beaches & doing what kids did then that lived on an island in a town made of peninsulas Those memories are good ones for me too. Playing flashlight tag in through the entire neighborhood with all the kids was always fun tooā¦ when you could stay out until 10 PM or 11 PM running around & your neighbors just went with it as long as we didnāt get too rowdy or anythingā¦ their yards were free game to hide in too
Okay ramblingā¦ Iāll stop now Thank you @SacredBee! Iām very happy that it brings you back to a wonderful place & time
Yes, Fall turned to Winter within a day. At 2pm, I watched our rain freeze into sleet and then fall as snow. By evening, we set a new record (the last record was set 125 years ago) with 3.6ā of snow.
Weekly Witchy Challenge Entry:
The weather this week helped me with my entry. We are having our first freeze so I had to prepare my plants and finish harvesting. I gathered some wild items that I know I will need during the winter. Itās hard to find anything on the ground once it is covered with snow!
(Sorry itās blurry, this is a rack I made to dry herbs on)
I gathered Mallow leaves, fruits, and roots for future uses. I washed and hung them up to dry.
I gathered pine cones specifically for a pine cone protection spell I read about but I plan on customizing it for my needs. Pine cones are the focus for my challenge entry.
Pine cones are associated with consciousness and enlightenment. The pineal gland (third eye) is named after the pine cone. They are protective against bad weather and hungry animals.
That brings me to the spell work I will do this winter for the birds that reside here. I will put peanut butter on the pine cones, roll them in bird seed, say a little prayer and hang them up in my trees to feed the birds.
(I have more bags of pine cones in the garage, 3 kinds!)
I changed the chant/prayer a little but it goes like this:
āI trust the light I see within even though darkness may abound, I conjure this cocoon of light to keep the animals safe and sound.ā From the book āMagic for your Homeā by: Aurora Kane.
I brought most of my herb plants inside. Itās going to warm back up so they can go back out for awhile after this cold snap. Iām making another attempt at an indoor herb garden for this winter.
( I adjusted the color so it would show in the picture better.)
So far I have Mugwort, Thyme and Oregano hanging in my kitchen window. I used command hooks to hang little buckets directly on the window. I have lemon balm and bergamot that are too big for the window so maybe I will try to grow them as they are if I can find space inside. I need more southern windows!!!
I have been picking and drying leaves all summer so I do have some saved if they die. My basil and rosemary have survived winters indoors so Iām hopeful
I will make an edit with some pictures later. Itās hard to get out of my warm cozy bed!!
We donāt have any pine cones yet here we will get them in a few weeks but I collect them & use them to make kind of intention ornaments & then on Imbolc when I have my fire I burn them. We have used them in the house for decorations before, I honestly never thought of rolling it Peanut Butter & Bird Seed! I LOVE that idea!
Iām going to have to remember that when the bigger ones start to fall too!
I am honored. Thank you and I hope you enjoy it.
My hips & I have for many years
Also, I clicked the B(old) option in the menu, & can definitely see the difference. So, thanks for making it even more clear!
Youāre welcome @Wysteria_Norn! I really donāt mind at all! Itās part of what we do
The easiest way to make it larger & bold is to put ## a space & then type the words Challenge Entry & make the words Italic.
Honestly, thatās all I do, is add ## & a space before the words that are stating itās a challenge Entry at the top of the post & then make sure that if it was in Italics it stays that way
I know that I have done it without leaving a note & Iām sorry to anyone who was confused! It makes it easier to find the entries within the conversation.
Hi Silver Bear
I am really excited to do this ritual. I have been really busy making a headdress with antlers.
I have been thinking about going out far and wide to a Secluded forest and being a bit enchanted with my antlers! I want to feel the energy and be one with nature. I think since this ties in so weāll I am going to try both of your rituals! Thank you, I just appreciate your videos and thank you for sharing your love and magic!
Jeannie
Itās time for a friendly reminder!
'Tis the season! Thank you so much to everyone who has shared their seasonal magick so far- youāve spread some wonderful seasonal cheer!
If you havenāt already shared an entry but would like to join in, please know that you still have a bit of time left to do so:
This challenge will close TOMORROW
If you would like to participate and havenāt done so already, please post about your challenge experience(s) by the deadline: Tomorrow: October 25th, 7:00 AM CET (Central European Time)
Blessed be!
Iām pretty impressed that I got it done before this message lately itās been Tuesday morning or later tonight before I have done my entry.
Everyoneās entries are great for this time of year & I have loved reading through them all.
There is actually a difference here:
If you highlight the words & click on the āBā on the tool bar (or you can add ** before the first letter & add ** following the last letter of the word or sentenceā¦ it will make it just Bold but the same size.
When you type the ## then a space & the words, it makes the text larger & bold. If you type ### then a space, it will make the words a little bit larger & bold:
Challenge Entry
Challenge Entry
Challenge Entry
I use the largest option for the first line or topic header, date, & then ### when itās a different section of what Iām preparing.
Most of the time itās more noticeable in Tending Brighidās Flame or the October, November, December Single Draws 2022
The skirts are so stinking CUTE!!! Love It!!