 Hello people, I'm Ginny Metherall and I'm a fourth generation witch. So today's video, hurrah, it's Samhain Halloween, that witch is sabbath and so today I'm going to look at the celebration and the traditions associated with Samhain. The wheel of the year is turning and winter is coming. Samhain is the end of six months of life and we start the new year on the 1st of November. So there is confusion about the feast of Samhain and when it starts and it starts at dusk on Halloween and goes right round for 24 hours until dusk on November the 1st. The most potent time, as a result, is at midnight on the 31st of October, moving on to the 1st, not the night before. This is when the shift between the seasons occurs and the turning of the wheel ensure that we move into winter. It is of course the start of the new year and don't you go thinking that new year's in January, that's an old I don't know what tradition, I don't know about that. New year always starts on the 1st of November. So end of season feasts are always held on the 31st of October with bonfire. It is a fire festival this one. The bonfire has a lot of traditions associated with it, which there's so many of them that I might even have to do my own video about the bonfire itself. But the main ones are that it was always lit at sunset and preferably on the top of a hill. You know there's quite a lot of places in the UK where there isn't any hills, some set levels I'm thinking, Norfolk Broad etc. So therefore it was just lit in the centre of the community. Each member of the community would take a burning ember from the bonfire and trot along to their home to light their own fire in their own half from that need fire that the community had built. It was important for them to leave that fire with their burning ember before the flames had died down because otherwise they put themselves at risk. However if you are a witch beware because bonfires at burning at the top of the hill are there to keep the witches away, standard traditional custom, or to frighten off any other spirits or deathly souls or goblins or fairies or generally bad stuff. So stay away from bonfires. There is always a strong sense of sacredness between the two seasons and this is where the veil of the world is at its thinnest. The ancients believed that this was a time when witches, goblins, trolls and fairies were abroad and so travelling abroad after dark on Halloween is not to be done because you will then put yourself at risk. It is also a time this changing scenes when death occurs. We see that the leaves are beginning to fall, the trees and the plants are dying back and this is reflected in this season where death is celebrated. Winter is a season of deaths and most people tend to you know make it through the winter and then drop off their perch in the spring. It is just the way of the world. With this death being reflected in the death of the world itself the ancients believed that this was a time when you could divine what was going to happen in the future especially who was going to die within your community. This also was a time when you could communicate with those spirits so therefore divination is a strong core running through Halloween. One of the ways therefore to celebrate it is by divining. Now you could divine however you like you could use a scrying bowl, you could use a crystal bowl, you could use some tarot cards or maybe even doing water scrying which is where you gaze into a venusian copper bowl of water and that will show you the future. Many superstitions state that the race of those who are going to die will pass through ballways or crossroads at midnight on Halloween so should you wish to count who's going to die in the coming months go and stand in your church porch your local parish church porch and watch the race as they pass by of the people in your community who are going to die or you can stand at a crossroad and do exactly the same thing. Likewise if you don't want to know who's going to die in the coming months you know because it is a bit macabre isn't it then why not divine who your future partner is going to be the absolute traditional spell for Halloween and one that everybody really should try at least once in their lives is to sit at midnight in front of a candlelit mirror take a hairbrush and brush your hair and in your other hand you take an apple and you eat the apple and as you're brushing your hair and eating your apple and gazing into the mirror you will see the vision of your future partner appearing over your shoulder but as I have said before likewise it might be the devil so watch out if it is the devil it means that bad stuff is going to happen so you know watch out for that one but it is one of the most famous traditional witchcraft spells that you can do at Halloween. Now you will notice that this spell that I have just told about involves people eating an apple. Apples are completely bound up with Samhain and Halloween they are considered the food of the dead and so one of the most important things that you should do with apples at Halloween is to leave them for the dead on your doorstep or altar and the next morning should they still be in the same place and untouched that's fine what the dead have done have taken the apples and they have sucked the energy the spiritual energy from that apple and so the apple now is no good so you need to dispose of it in the compost or wherever you dispose of dead apples if you don't want to do the eating the apple and brushing your hair you can take an apple and put it under your pillow at midnight on Halloween and then go to sleep and in the next morning you'll wake up and your dream will have been of your future partner then of course you peel the skin of the apple in one long round and turn around three times and throw it over your shoulder and when the peel falls on the floor whatever is suggested as a letter by that peel is the first letter of your husband here in the west country we've got our own traditions and one of which is that Halloween is actually referred to as Alan tide Alan is an old English word for apple and huge fake red polished apples the finest will be passed between neighbours and friends as gifts and actually in varying parts of Cornwall still you can find that the Alan tide apples are displayed to bring about luck for the new year because of course as the season shifts we shift our luck with it if we want to and apples are great for luck sawn is also the time of the fairies that they come roaring out of their halls at midnight and corrals around the countryside you don't want to go outside at this time in case you are abducted by the fey so what you should do instead is leave some apples some nuts and some bread for them outside or on your altar for them to take the fair at this time of course were considered mischievous and devious folk not the sort of loving creatures of the earth that I often associate fey with and talking of that let's have a look at the couple of the customs of witch law Halloween is a night of dedication and initiation there are several sacred stones and dolmens around in the west country especially where it is considered if you walk around them nine times on Halloween at midnight you will be given information in order for you to become a very powerful witch so find a sacred stone and walk around at nine times at midnight then touch the stone and you'll be imparted with the knowledge of the craft witch law always stated that when you were initiating yourself into a coven for example you needed to shake off the shackles of the dominant religion of the time now the easiest way to do this is to reverse the prayers or spells of that dominant religion for example in the UK the dominant religion is christianity so therefore to to shake off those shackles you would reverse their main prayer and that prayer being I believe the paternoster the our father so you just simply say the paternoster backwards this releases that religious dogma from that witch and so therefore it's not calling in the devil it's not satanic however it's just a reversal of what those bonds of that religion have on that person and the perfect time to do this is at midnight on Halloween so should you wish to initiate yourself into the craft tonight is a good night to do it tonight is also the night at midnight where you should initiate your actual coven so if you're thinking of creating a coven do it on Halloween perfect time to start it what you would do is first of all at midnight you and your group would all meet together in your sacred space wherever that might be which is a vault used to meet at sacred wells or sacred stones top of the hill somewhere away from other people you then need to purify yourself and your fellow coven members before you join together in creating the bonds of the coven I mean it's a really lovely thing to do and I've done this myself and it is one of those memories that I have of being a really special time for me because it was the start of something amazing because this is the time when the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest you should set another place at your table the spirits are abroad and walking and one of those spirits might be your gran and she might want to come and sit down and join you for dinner and so it is an honouring of your ancestors to do this at Pendle hill in Lancashire where the Pendle witches came from there is a traditional custom of lighting the witches and what that means is that community would take a candle they would light it and they would carry it to the top of the hill if the candle was still a light once they'd walked up the hill it meant that they were going to have great luck for the following year and finally there is guising which is possibly one of the traditions that has now evolved into the modern day trick or treating guising was dressing up to scare away the evil spirit and then you would go from house to house asking for souls these souls would be given to you in the form of either cakes or nuts or apples because souls for the dead love some apples it is quite a it is quite a northern tradition in the uk that one but it is possibly the start of the trick or treat so this witch is going to be having a bonfire having a party a lot of cider cup i might do a couple of divination spells for the year it depends i don't massively like doing divination for myself because it takes the fun out of what happens in the future i find it a bit dull because i'm like oh i knew that that was going to happen and then it did and that's really boring so not for me i think but other people it is exciting and it is a great craft to learn talk about learning why don't you come and learn from me go to my patreon page patreon.com forward slash jinny meddle come and join the coven or there are some courses that you can do in my shop have a look check it out otherwise i would love to hear what you're doing for halloween and what your traditions are because it fascinates me to find the traditions from other parts of the world and other people do leave me a comment and let me know finally don't forget to like and subscribe and thank you so much for helping me because this is really how i can keep going and make videos for you and so if you like them please do just subscribe i will see you in a couple of days