October - Samhain

Catch a falling oak leaf before it hits the ground; make an unselfish wish and the Oak King will grant it.

While some demonologists and inquisitors doubted that Witches could fly, they accepted confessions of it, reasoning that if Witches thought they could fly, it was just as incriminating as if they actually did so.

Call on the crone goddess Bellona when attempting to communicate with spirits of the dead; offerings on your altar should include apples and bloodstones.

For moonrise ritual work, fill a natural vessel with water; set it outside where the light of the full Moon will shine on it and hallow it; give thanks to the Goddess for her light and love, and use the water in all spell-casting that calls for water.

Make ginger-spiced cookies and cut them to look like playing cards as per the custom of medieval times; and if you decorate with the design of an ace be sure to integrate it into a ritual for luck in love.

In Irish lore, if you are passed by fairies on All Hallow's Eve, you should throw the dirt from your footprint after them, which will force them to free any humans they have taken captive.

Sycamore is the residence of Nut, goddess of night and creative power; write spells on its shed bark.

Burn frankincense for tranquil contemplation and spiritual liberation.

OCTOBER DATES:

1st - Birthday of Isaac Bonewitz, Druid, Ar nDraiocht Fein.  Birthday of Marc Edmund Jones, astrologer.  Planting Day.

2nd - Birthday of Timothy Roderick, author and modern Witch.  Ramadan ends.  Planting Day.

4th - President Reagan signs law proclaiming 1983 "Year of the Bible" and that the Bible is the word of God.

7th - Birthday of Arnold Crowther (b. 1909), a stage magician who was initiated into the Gardnerian Tradition in 1960.

8th - Birthday of Aiden Breac, prominent teacher of Scottish witchcraft (PectiWita), 1897.  In Astola, district of Durango, a decision is made to prohibit the French from lodging in the area because they were believed to be responsible for the spread of witchcraft, 1617.

9th - Yom Kippur.

11th - Birthday of Isaac Bonewitz, Druid, Ar nDraiocht Fein.  Birthday of Marc Edmund Jones, astrologer.  Planting Day.

12th - Birthday of Aleister Crowley, occultist.  Death of Eliphas Levi, ceremonial magician, 1888.  Jacques de Molay is a pallbearer at the funeral of the wife of Phillip IV's brother, Charles de Valoris, 1306.  Planting Day.

13th - Jacques de Molay and other French Templars arrested by order of King Philip, 1306.  Columbus Day (observed).

14th - Sukkot begins.  Full Moon (Blood Moon).

15th - Planting Day.  Mercury comes out of Retrograde (4:06 pm EDT).

16th - Planting Day.

17th - Harvesting Day.

18th - Birthday of Nicholas Culpeper, astrologer and herbalist, 1616.  Harvesting Day.

19th - Planting Day.

20th - Birthday of Selena Fox, Circle Sanctuary.  Sukkot ends.  Planting Day.

21st - First publication of The Cauldron newsletter, 1976.  Harvesting Day.

22nd - Sun enters Scorpio.  Harvesting Day.

23rd - Harvesting Day.

24th - United Nations Day.

25th - Chiron comes out of Retrograe (4:13 am EDT).

26th - De Molay and 31 other Templars confess to heresy in front of clergy; all later recant their confessions, 1306.  Sibyl Leek dies of cancer, 1982.

27th - Circle Sanctuary founded, 1974.  Celtic Tree Month of Ivy ends.

28th - Celtic Tree Month of Reed begins.  New Moon.

29th - MacGregor Mathers issues manifesto naming himself supreme leader of the Golden Dawn, 1896.  Planting Day.

30th - House Senate conferees drop the "Helms amendment," which would have barred the IRS from granting tax-exempt status to groups that promote witchcraft, 1985.  Vatican takes responsibility for the Inquisition, one of the darkest eras in Roman Catholic history, 1998.

31st - New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn (NROOGD) first formed, 1967.  Charter Date for Covenant of the Goddess (COG).  First Public Witch-In held by Witches International Craft Associates (WICA) in New York's Central Park, 1970.  Samhain/Halloween.