Happy Halloween!

This morning I woke up very early. It was still dark outside so as I walked through my kitchen and dining room I was barely able to see. But I could feeeel. Oh, my favorite day of the year is here! It's Halloween!

As is our custom, we keep the lights very low, candles being the usual way we cast light during the morning hours in this house ~ and the sounds barely audible to keep the peacefulness of dawn for as long as possible. But today I got to create an even more magical ambiance than usual.

I plugged in the glowing jack-o-lantern that sits on top of my refrigerator with its tall, pointy, black, witch's hat. The orange pumpkin lights were next! Their light led me on to the purple and orange lights and finally I lit the candles on the ancestor altar and welcomed in the Spirits of the Ancestors in honor of the Celtic holy day of Samhain! Then, it was time to make the coffee!

Because nowadays I am forever charging up one battery or another ~ the cell phone, the MP3 player, the digital camera battery pack ~ I am also having to unplug things like my coffee pot on a regular basis. Yesterday, after I charged up the cell phone, I plugged the coffee pot back in.

The blinking red light on the front panel of the coffee maker reminded me to fix the clock as it will blink incessantly and not allow you to brew a new pot until you steady it by setting a time. I didn't want to deal with it at that moment so I simply tapped once on the minute button and that was sufficient to change the blinking red 12:00, it's default time, to a steady, glowing-red 12:01. And that was that...or so I thought....But everything happens for a reason...And had I not noticed the blinking light and had I not changed it that very moment, what happened this morning, would not have happened....Someone or something was behind that seemingly unimportant event!

I forgot all about the clock and you know, it doesn't matter what time the coffee pot says it is because all I have to do is turn to the left and I can see the stove clock! So although all day long I kept thinking it was some time other than it was, I didn't care! Because I had the stove after all!

Back to this morning! After I lit my Halloween lights, I walked over to the counter to make the coffee. It was 6:00 am by the stove clock but on the coffee pot clock....it was...10:31! In other words...October 31!

Happy Halloween Everybody! Keep your eyes open for these little but magical signs from the Beloved Dead as we dance our way through another magical Samhain day!

Blessed Be,

Melissa

Honoring Our Beloved Dead at Samhain

Ancestor Altar

The Ancient Ones
by Patricia Reis

From the beginning
We have been with you
We are the ancient ones
And we remember

We remember the time when there was only love
The time when all breathing was one
We remember the seed of your being
Planted in the belly of the vast black night
We remember the red cave of deep slumber
The time of forgetting
The sound of your breath
The pulse of your heart
We remember the force
of your longing for life
The cries of your birth
bringing you forth

We are the ancient ones
And we have waited
and watched

You say that you cannot remember that time
That you have no memory of us
You say that you cannot hear our voices
That our touch no longer moves you
You say that there can be no return
That something has been lost
That there is only
silence

We say the time of waiting is over
We say the silence has been broken
We say that there can be no forgetting now
We say
listen

We are the bones of your grandmother's grandmothers
We have returned now
We say you cannot forget us now
We say we are with you
And you are us
Remember
Remember

When I was in my early twenties I began keeping a dream journal. Every morning upon awakening I would get my coffee and my dream journal and I would write my dreams down, decipher the symbols and figure out what the meanings and messages for me were. What was my intuitive self trying to tell me? Sometimes it was like a treasure hunt or a mystery solving adventure. Other times the meanings were as clear and crisp as a bright autumn morning.

One day I dreamed that I was at a family gathering but was alone in the living room while everyone else gathered in the kitchen. My Nana, Marion Francis and Grandfather, William came to me. I said, "Nana. You are dead. But you mustn't be." She handed me a wooden box. I opened it and inside was a beautiful round, flat polished and large purple amethyst stone with the image of a great tree with roots burned into it in black. It was a powerful and magical image and I knew it was a symbol of the love of my ancestors ~ the family tree. Secondly, there was a teardrop shaped amethyst crystal in the box. I was very aware that I was being given a gift by her.

That morning I woke up, gathered my journal and pens and went to the City Room Cafe on West Pearl Street in Nashua where I often went for coffee and breakfast in the mornings to write. I was sitting outside at the cafe tables when I suddenly saw a kitten run out the door of a small boutique next door to the City Room Cafe. I jumped up, grabbed the kitten, turned around, bent down and gently tossed it back in the door. As I stood up I noticed to my left that on a jewelry display beside me was an amethyst tear-drop crystal on a silver necklace! I called to Joe, the dark island man who owned the shop. "Joe! I just dreamed that my Nana gave me this very necklace! How much is it? I have to have it!" Well, Joe came from a culture that reverently honored their ancestral connections and assured me that this was a gift from my ancestor. The necklace was $45.00 but I only had $30.00 or something like that. He allowed me to purchase it for what I could because he was certain it was meant for me to have it. To this day I keep that necklace, now broken after all these years, on my altar. When I look at it, I often catch myself saying, "That's the necklace Nana gave me," and to me, it will always be this way.

Samhain

The Ancestor Feast and Ritual

Samhain

Last night was a dark moon; a perfect moon to gather in my parlor for an ancestor ritual and feast with our women's spirituality group! I have the house decorated for Halloween. People say that my house always looks like it's decorated for Halloween but now it is truly so!

Purple lights and burgundy red drapes cover the parlor windows, a black cauldron was placed on the (covered television) altar for women to place their donations in. I shoved the shiny gold, velvet-lined donation basket beside the couch for the night! A magical black witch's hat with iridescent polka dots and a scary folk art jack-o-lantern are hung on the banister to the two-steps that lead to the dining room where the Ancestor feast was and will be this week.

My dining room table has been transformed into a beautiful and whimsical place fit to host whatever benevolent Spirits may want to visit this week! A black velvet table cloth with the tiniest of silver sparkles on it covers this altar. A witch I hope to look like some day watches over the feast for us.

There are colorful feathered masks; one of a crow that I made at Celebrate Samhain last year, forest-green gourds, a basket of the years final harvest items, an autumn-gold candle, silver holders with purple candles, a jack-o-lantern for the forks and spoons and other hidden objects to delight the lovers of magic and mystery. Shall we have a Dumb Supper?

During our Cakes & Ale, we set a plate for the Beloved Dead. On it we offered half an apple with its five-pointed seed star, a beehive chalice of apple cider and a soul cake. What fun we had last night divining our soul cakes! Mine contained a heart shaped skeleton key!

Glowing, orange pumpkin lights, purple fabric over purple and orange lights, glowing jack-o-lanterns, and the beginnings of a ghost collection from my aunt Raney, (a folk artist specializing in primitive Halloween folk art,) set the scene for a night of story-telling about our beloved Dead, an ancestor feast, and weaving a ritual web to honor the connections of the past to these loved ones and to the future generations to whom we will be "The Ancestors." I wrote a fun poem about it that I think I will call "They've Been Waiting."

Twelve sitting spots
in a circle waited
for the women who would
sit in them!

Within the circle,
was a circle;
An honoring place,
An altar of black.

Bone beads of skulls,
Found-bones from the shore,
Sweet sugar skulls
In the corners of four.

A crooked bare branch,
A black candle for light,
A picture of Cerridwen
With her cauldron of Night.

Ah! Came the women!
With bundles and food,
Offerings, photographs,
And witch hats and cloaks!

To the altar they went,
One by one they approached,
With old photographs, crystals,
A costume-jewelry brooch!

Enameled pan,
And silver spoon,
An onyx ring and books and poems,
Soul Cakes and look! Fried Spam! (who knew!)

Bundled offerings of gratitude,
Libations of feathers and herbs,
Family stories, laughter, tears,
Favorite memories and wisdom words.

Glowing circle of candle light,
Held close to our hearts,
To honor the web of connection,
That's been there from the start.

And Then! Entered our Beloved Dead!
And The altar came alive!
Their Spirits swirling round our heads!
Like bees near the hive!

And more than one
Four-legged one,
Was caught from the corner of eyes!
For they are always near to us
And that was no surprise!


In memory of the friends, relatives and beloved pets who have touched my life but who are now gone ~ Marion Williamson, Chris Mucci, Barbara Sokup, Patricia Mesita, John Hilske, Rob, Gina Masiello, Lenore, Chauncey Potter, Ruth MacKay and Hawk ~ I set an altar this week and next to honor the life you lived and the gifts and lessons you blessed me with. Because of some of you ~ Chauncey, my grandfather, William my Grandfather, Marion, My Nana, I am alive...others of you showed up in my life at important moments in mine to teach or inspire me, to play some part for me in the drama that is the evolution of my soul, to bring me love. I honor you for all you were in life and I feel the pain for all you never got to do...

I sit here today and in ritual last night and I will again gather on Friday evening to celebrate this ancient and holy day of Samhain ~ Halloween ~ The Day of The Dead ~ Dia de Los Muertos ~ All Saint's Day ~ to pay homage and pour libations to the thousands of grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles and cousins from my ancestral line whose lives have influenced mine in countless ways, in ways I will never understand. But their blood runs through my blood! My grandmothers lived in caves, gathered food from the living earth, scrubbed clothes in rivers, baked bread over fires..and so did yours...Ancient Mothers and Fathers infuse me with the wisdom and deep knowledge you hold! Help me to bring forth the visions you carried long ago! Guide me! Watch over me and those I love! In honor and gratitude, Melissa

Those who are dead are never gone:

They are there in the thickening shadow.

The dead are not under the earth:

They are in the tree that rustles,

They are in the wood that groans,

They are in the water that sleeps,

They are in the hut, they are in the crowd,

The dead are not dead.

~by Birago Diop

Becoming Persephone

Greek Goddess Persephone with Pomegranate

I choose to eat the deep red seeds.

To taste and breathe them into me.

With trust and reverence

I enter thee;

Underworld of Persephone.

I am now Persephone,

Blessing all the ghosts in me.

~Melissa Potter

Altar to Celebrate Autumn Equinox

The Magic of Childhood

Fall is my most favorite time of the year! I am excited to learn, to delve deep, to decorate for Halloween! I love Thanksgiving ~ both our American traditional Thanksgiving in November and the Witches Thanksgiving ~ Mabon ~ Autumn Equinox in September. I am filled with memories of childhood during this time of year.

When I see myself, it's from the perspective of looking down at my own feet as I walk through the brightly colored leaves on the city sidewalks. There are mounds of red, orange, yellow, fire- colored maple leaves in the gutters alongside the curb. I am making a path with my swooshing and have to be extra careful not to step on a crack, lest I break my mother's back; and to watch for the places where Mother Nature has pushed herself up through the concrete and made swells in the sidewalk where old beautiful tree roots burst through.

I can smell the magic and spookiness of Halloween. I can feel the cozy fabric of my new school clothes and see the castle walls of Prattville Park (the ones I loved to walk upon) covered with autumn leaves.

My thoughts revolved around what I wanted to be for Halloween. Should I be a witch (again) or a gypsy (again)? When I was a gypsy, I could treasure-hunt through my two, teen aged aunts jewelry boxes. They were filled to overflowing with 1970's wooden bead necklaces and bracelets and trinkle things in every color. I wore a bandanna around my head and an exotic mole on the left side of my chin. It was so exciting!

I vividly remember, in my body, walking up and down the streets of Prattville with my mother and sister. I only had one back then ~ I now have three! Did my father ever go trick-or-treating with us? I can't remember! There was nothing more exciting then the thrill of knocking on the doors of the houses that were decorated as haunted houses with scary music coming from the their windows! I can practically hear the cold October wind blowing, the leaves swirling and landing, the swish of our feet through the piles of them.

After trick-or-treating, we would go back to Jones Ave. the small, dead-end street where my Nana's house was. Into the front parlor we would dash with our pillow cases of candy! Onto the rug we would fall as quickly as possible to empty out, and count the candy bars. My favorite were the Sugar Daddy's! How I loved when my Mom or Nana asked for a piece of their favorite candy!

If I knew better back then I could have held a crystal ball with my child hands and seen the gypsy woman looking back at me. She would have said, "Look into my crystal ball Little Missie. You will grow up to be an adventuring woman after all. You will be very intuitive and magical. You will, in fact, get a crystal ball by default from an eccentric roommate you will have who will disappear without a trace one winter night from the haunted house you are renting with him in Nashua, NH...You will begin reading tarot cards and collect them all of your life! You will become the witch you always dress up to be at Halloween, but a good witch, a wise-woman witch with circles of other women witches around you....look into my crystal ball and see that all the things you love now as a child, you will become when you're a grownup, too!"

It's so funny that everything I always played as a child has come to pass in my life! I was forever playing teacher and school, writing poems and dreaming of keeping journals that would some day be published, dressing up as a witch and a gypsy (I've moved about fifty times in my life and Goddess knows I am a witch!) I always loved the Native Americans, called the "Indians" back then, in all the Western films and especially was heart broken by the commercial of the Native American man on the bank of a polluted waterway with a tear in his eyes. To this day I love Mother Nature (which is what they referred to her as in the Parkay margarine commercials!) (TV references fill my childhood memories!) and to this day I do whatever I can and whatever new things I learn about to help protect, honor and love my Mother Earth. It has all come to pass. The childhood seeds of the things I loved most in life are the blossoming flowers and trees of who I am and who I am becoming in my life today.

Feeling My Autumn Essence

When I was in my twenties, I began recording my dreams and the fall is when they became the most potent, magical and colorful. Beginning at the first harvest festival on the ancient wheel of the year on August 2 - called Lammas to the ancient Celtic peoples - my desire to write and journal and remember my dreams begins to fill my life with excitement. My connection to myself was always the deepest in the fall. I always say that fall is when I am in my "essence." Friends from all over and way back when suddenly call me in autumn because, "It's fall and I just thought of you, Missie," they say to me. I was conceived in the fall. I chose to enter the world during this most magical time. I always hope that when I die someday when I am very old and a grandmother and healthy in all ways except for the old-age part, it will be during the season of autumn. It would be the perfect time to release one's body, to offer it up to the blessed earth in time to transform, renew, and rebirth myself in the womb of some new mother in the springtime of the year.

Gratitude, Celebration and Deepening

This is a time of the beauty and abundance of the harvest season. It's a festive time of giving thanks, feasting, and gratitude for all we have ~ our family, our friends, the fullness of the earth around us, our dreams and our hopes. I hope that you all take the time you deserve to rest and evaluate what you have harvested this past year. Have a bonfire, a campfire, a wood stove or fireplace fire. If you can do none of these things, light an autumn colored candle and feel the warmth of the fire elemental in your heart of hearts.

Autumn Equinox celebrates the abundance of the harvest time, gratitude and the balance of light and dark. It is a traditional time to gather in community with others in gratitude for all we have received. In the spiritual sense, it's also a time to prepare for the coming dark & cold time of the year.

Autumn Equinox is the symbolic doorway that leads us into ourselves. In the fall we begin the journey down the double spiral pathway that leads to the inner realms. Deep inside our sacred self is the home we return to where, in autumn and in winter, we rest, renew and transform ourselves. We pull our energy deep down into our roots as the plants, animals and trees of our region have taught us to do.

It is also traditional in some cultures to have a Giveaway Ceremony. As the trees are releasing their beautiful, colored leaves and the ripe apples hang heavy on their boughs, we see all around us that Mother Earth is giving herself to us freely and fully. Look around your home and space. What is it time to let go of? This would be anything that comes from your heart, that you know you need to pass on, that you are ready to release. Wrap this gift up beautifully and gift it to a friend, gift it to a stranger, leave it on someones doorstep!

When I'm grateful for the blessings in my life, my heart is wide open with love, a feeling of joy, abundance, magic and well-being. Gratitude is the secret to living a life of true joy and meaning for me.

May you feel the love of the earth and spirit within your heart this day and always.

Blessed Be,

Melissa