Welcome to the Witching Season

Every year, on October first, I write my Welcome to the Witching Season post. October has always been my favorite month and autumn, my favorite season. This makes sense, of course, given I’m a shamanic witch and this season is made for witches and mystics. 

Right on schedule, the rains are starting as the season of ghosts rolls in. This is the perfect time for mysticism and magic, this is the time when those of us who are real witches claim our ground.Autumn rain forest

This is the season where we remember the ancestors, honor the dead, and ward off unwanted phantoms seeking entrance into our lives.

For Pagans, the new year—Samhain is not only the festival of the dead but the celebration of the Pagan New Year. This is the season of magick and bewitchment. 

I love the fog and the mist, and the chill rains that make the Seattle area feel like home. I love the nights when the wind rustles through the trees, sending leaves spiraling off to carpet the ground. And I’ll even admit it, while I’m an arachnophobe, whenever we start seeing the giant house spiders that run through our house and the striped orb weavers that build their webs all across the bushes outside, I know autumn is here.

GhostsThis is also the season for all lovers of the paranormal—this is the season of imagination. Ghosts lurk in the shadows, trolls creep out from under their bridges, vampires go on the hunt, and that howling you hear? No, it isn’t the basset hound next door—it’s a werewolf peeking out of the forest under the full moon.

Every year I have a tradition—to my closest female friends I send a card that I found years ago and bought many many copies of (SO many copies). There’s a line inside about “…this burnt orange season” and so I send my ‘burnt orange cards’ every year—not via e-mail, but honest-to-goddess snail mail cards to say hey, I’m thinking of you this wonderful seasoncookies

It heralds in the autumn for me now. So I sit, writing little notes by hand in an age of all-things-keyboard, and while I’m doing so, I think of bonfires and hearth embers and applesauce and cinnamon buns and community.

So, tell me, what about this season makes you shiver at night, and wrap the covers just a little tighter around you? What makes this the perfect ‘Witching Season’ for you?

 

 

Share Button
Welcome to the Witching Season
Tagged on:                                                             

15 thoughts on “Welcome to the Witching Season

  • 10/04/2018 at 7:47 pm
    Permalink

    One of my favorite things about this time of year (besides Halloween) is the Central Virginia Celtic Festival! If I can afford to go, I go with by best friend & her father (or both parents if her mom can come). We celebrate our Celtic heritages and enjoy the music, food, Highland Games & SHOPPING!!!!! We have a great time together. It’s our special celebration! It stinks went I can’t go. I’m going this year though. I missed the year Tuatha Dea was there (that was 3 years ago I believe). Thanks to Tammy, I got to hear their music & saw the videos she posted on Face Book.

    Reply
    • 10/05/2018 at 6:31 am
      Permalink

      I LOVE Tuatha Dea–I’m sorry you had to miss them but glad you can go this year!

      Reply
  • 10/04/2018 at 9:24 am
    Permalink

    Hallowwen has always been special to me because it is my mom and dad’s anniversary, so the fun was always more special to me on that holiday.

    Reply
  • 10/01/2018 at 11:32 pm
    Permalink

    I love that it gets cooler in San Antonio. For me this is a time for friends and family of the heart.
    Magically I tend to center more on home . Helps with the crazy at work.
    A tradition of mine is to read a book by Morgan Llywelyn, Bertrice Small and now Yasmine Galenorn to honor my Celtic and Northern Mothers.
    Blessings to all.

    Reply
    • 10/02/2018 at 3:28 pm
      Permalink

      Doesn’t it really feel like the time to center on home and family. Those of us who are the keepers of the keys have to make certain the family unit has everything it needs to make it through the winters. (Did you know that’s what the word concierge actually means?).

      Reply
  • 10/01/2018 at 5:23 pm
    Permalink

    Mostly I’m wrapping a blanket around me because I’m cold. But for me, this is the season when my energy comes alive from it’s quasi-hibernation during the spring and summer (people have commented that I seem different at this time of year). So, it’s just perfect for me in that I feel completely alive and I agree with what you say about the Western Washington region, being from it as well. Plus, I just love scary things.

    Reply
    • 10/02/2018 at 3:29 pm
      Permalink

      Yes! I feel so much more alive during the autumn and winter.

      Reply
  • 10/01/2018 at 3:02 pm
    Permalink

    Like you this IS my favorite time of year. This is when I’m happy no matter what is going on. As far as wrapping the covers closer, because the weather us cooler (summer is great but I don’t care for being hot and don’t like people touching me if I’m sweating) I love to snuggle more even if it’s just with Sir Loki, my cat and main familiar. The smells, the sounds, the colors mother Earth brings just make me happy. Life is just good and brings those feel good feelings.

    Reply
    • 10/02/2018 at 3:32 pm
      Permalink

      I know, I don’t like sweating and I don’t like being touched when I fell sticky.

      Reply
  • 10/01/2018 at 11:13 am
    Permalink

    I love the autumn colors. I live just about 40 minutes north of San Jose, CA. and we don’t have the rain you get up north. It’s even snowed in Lynnwood, WA. where my daughter and her husband live. That was fun. Since I’m retired, autumn means snuggling under the covers with a good book. I’ve already put out my Halloween decorations for the neighborhood children ( I taught kindergarten and 1st grade).

    Reply
    • 10/02/2018 at 3:30 pm
      Permalink

      We’ve been snowed in several times (we live in Kirkland) over the years. I don’t want a lot of snow, but I like at least a few days. 🙂

      Reply
  • 10/01/2018 at 9:21 am
    Permalink

    For me its all you said! I love starting the fire in the fireplace. We are blessed in Redmond especially where I live. Every morning I get to drive down my hill and look at the fog and mist hovering across the field off Avondale.
    Marymoore park has amazing patches of fog and mist.
    My daughter taught my granddaughter to dance in the rain when she was tiny so its something to welcome in the season . all of the colors of fall are just warm. We love to decorate.
    The spiders though!! They make me cringe. And we have some HUGE ones that think we are their winter place. Lol

    You can feel the magic in the air. I guess for me although we celebrate our loves that have passed. This is a peaceful yet exciting time of year.
    I loved out summer. At times too warm for me honestly. I was very ready for Autumn.
    Blessings to all going into this magical season!

    Reply
    • 10/02/2018 at 3:31 pm
      Permalink

      This truly is the witching season!

      Reply
  • 10/01/2018 at 8:20 am
    Permalink

    I like to wrap the blankets around me and tell the kids scary stories my best one is the ghost train

    Reply
    • 10/02/2018 at 3:31 pm
      Permalink

      I don’t think I’ve heard that one!

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.