 Hello people, I'm Ginny Metherall and I am the fourth generation witch. It's a quick one today because I want to just talk about what this witch is going to do to prepare for Samhain. Because of course this is the big festival of the year is it not? And so I thought I'd show you three things that I do every year in preparation for the Sabbath. Number one is of going to be the pumpkin and I've got a little gourd here which is rather cute isn't it? But I normally spend a lot of time before Halloween carving my pumpkins. Now the symbolism of pumpkins is varied and great. You can look up on the internet and see the sort of the reasons why behind them. There's different reasons depending on what part of the world you come from. But the actual tradition for using a pumpkin is not just to scare off the evil spirit that might be flying around at Halloween and after all the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest. But of course it's the light within the pumpkin and this is going to be a light in the darkness. And if you're from the west country of England you'll know it as a punky. And punkies are the way that the womenfolk found their menfolk in the marshes of Somerset when they were off a gambling and a drinking and they used a punky in order to light their way. There is so many traditions with jack-o-lanterns so this Halloween my first thing will be to find my pumpkin. Now it doesn't necessarily matter how you carve your pumpkin or what you carve into it. It is about scaring off the bad things that are abroad and it does work because as you carve that pumpkin you put your intent into it and then with the candle lit inside it you will find that it scares away the bad jujuts from your door. Preparation number two that I do every single year and that is to do with the pentacle. Now I need to tell you a bit about the pentacle because it's completely bound up with witchcraft. Throughout hundreds of thousands of years it has been used as the witch symbol and witches always considered it to be protective and healing. It is not a negative symbol. It is not a symbol of evil or of the devil. It is a symbol of the god Baphomet but you know it depends if you worship Baphomet if you want to use it as a symbol for him. For me it is one of incredible safety and in fact I used one the other day with nuts when banishing some demons from a friend's house who I happened to be with at the time and realised that he was not um unaccompanied by things. It is because it is one of the safest forms that you can use within your magic. So for this time of year what I like to do is remake and re-energise my pentacles. You can make them out of absolutely anything. I like to make mine out of lavender flower heads and the simple reason is because A they smell delicious and B you're incorporating lavender's correspondences of healing protection and spirituality within your pentagram. Lavender is highly associated with the earth element air as is the pentagram. So it's like a win-win situation if you should make your pentagram out of dry lavender heads. Now I always do this because your charms which essentially this is one do run out and so to re-energise them or remake them is an important part of a witch's rituals throughout the year. You know just because you made it once it won't last necessarily that long. The energy will deplete from these charms. As you can see I'm using red threat to bind the joints. Red is traditionally a colour of protection and safety adding another layer. I tend to remake my pentacles every year and I put them for Halloween on my door because this gives me the added protection so that anything that walks through that door to my home will be safe and true. I love pentacles I really do I think in fact I'm even going to have to get a tattoo of one that's how much I love them. The third and final preparation that I will definitely be doing this year is to get a bushel of apples. Apples are so incredibly bound up with this season of Halloween and in fact if you've watched my October witchcraft it tells you a bit about that there. Apples and part and parcel of October and therefore part and parcel of Halloween and in fact in the north of England Halloween used to be called Duck Apple Night. Everyone spent their time ducking for apples that night. They are intrinsically part of Halloween and that incredibly famous traditional spell that should be done at midnight on Halloween is to take an apple and eat it and whilst you're eating this apple to brush your hair and look into a mirror that is only lit by candles and whilst you're eating your apple and brushing your hair and looking in the mirror if you look over at your shoulder you will see your future partner or the devil depending whether you've got protection around your house. If you put up a nice pentacle then you will most likely see your partner but that is one of the most famous spells for Halloween and a tradition that I have done. So not only will I be using my apples in spells I will also be using them to eat. I love a bit of apple pie don't we all? I will be making heats with a cider cup with them or apple bobbing because there's nothing more fun than getting your face wet at Halloween is there now. Apples really are part and parcel for sour. Now of course I'm having a Halloween party I do every year so I will also be making vast amounts of food vast amounts of cider cup and vast amounts of games for them to play because what I liked to have a theme every year last year was werewolf olympics not sure what we're doing this year possibly vampire themed I'm feeling quite vampiric at the moment. However these are the three witchy things that I do every single year and so I would like to know which one is your favorite and do you do any of these do you have traditions that you follow every year of Halloween because I'm really interested to know can you leave me a comment please I would love to hear. Otherwise don't forget my cover meetings coming up go to patreon.com forward slash a Ginny Metherall it's the Halloween Coven coming up and a very exciting it will be too not quite sure what we're doing yet but it will be something related to this very exciting sabbat hope to see you there otherwise please don't forget to like and subscribe because it really helps my channel and I will see you in a few days