 Hello people, I'm Ginny Metherill. I am a fourth generation witch. Today is part of my ever popular Almanac series where we look at the traditions, the rituals and the witchcraft that you can do throughout the month of October. This is such a popular series of mine and to be fair it's one of my favourite videos to make throughout the month because I do love looking at the traditions and the witchcraft behind those traditions. So with that little bubble over as always with these videos what I like to do is to go into a general overview of the witchcraft trends that happen throughout the month of October and then we'll look at the nitty gritty day-to-day detail for what witchcraft you can do on what day. So waffle over let's dive straight into our overview. October as we know is a prime witchy month of the year with the Sabbath of Samhain or Halloween at the end of it. Now there is quite a lot that leads up to this Halloween so that's what I really want to start looking at. With the end of the harvest and everything safely in we're starting to look to the beginning of the new year. The new year of course falls on the 1st of November don't you be thinking that it falls on the 1st of January. This is therefore the time when that shape-shifting spirit a bucker or pucker comes out depending on where you are in the world. Down here in the southwest of the UK we do call him bucker. He's a shape-shifting spirit one of the old gods and a mischief maker supreme. However it's his time and so therefore we have pucker knight, pucking knight, goblin knight, mischief knight. All of these things with different time frames have the same spirit around them where they are basically knights of mischief making by people in order to honour this old god. Bucker is closely related to the black thorn tree and the black thorn is an incredibly magical tree. It is very much used in baneful magic as well as harmful magic. So should you wish to keep bucker at bay start carving your pumpkins now. October is also about apples. Apples are a part of human history from the very first. We have cultivated apples wherever we go. Apple trees themselves were worshipped and venerated by our ancestors since the beginning of time really. There was a lot of laws surrounding apple trees and apple orchards about the stealing of apples and the planting of apple trees to claim land. Apples themselves of course are known as the food of the dead and throughout October as we lead up to the high point of the year for the dead it is customary to leave apples on our doorsteps and on our altars to placate the dead because they like to feed off them. This also has the added bonus of placating any other deities that happen to like an apple out there and there's plenty of them. The great wizard Merlin of King Arthur fame lived on the Isle of Avalon and Avalon is the corruption of the Welsh Isle of Apples. There's a lot of places which have decided to be the Isle of Avalon. I'm still holding out for Round Glastonbury I have to say. That's my personal favourite. Sacred Orchards in the UK are guarded by a pixie pony, a sprite pstallion who guards the trees and they're glistening through to say gallop around. He's a shapeshifting pony not only does he have a nasty knit and quite a big kick but his eyes glow and if you stare into them you will become transfixed until the morning sun arises. There's plenty of traditional tales in the UK about the people scrumping apples as we call it which is stealing apples from apple tree orchards. If you happen to live near an orchard do go into the orchard well with permission obviously and cut a small piece of the turf by the largest tree so hang that small piece of turf from the tree branches. As you're doing this give it the name of any disease that is afflicted in you or your loved ones and as that turf mudders away so will the disease. That's a good healing spell whilst you're in that orchard why not look around for some fallen branches apple tree wood was one of the sacred woods of the druids and in fact it was one of the woods that was preferred for their wands it was either that or you both of them have different capabilities you is more protective apple is more for guiding you in the land of spirit and other such things always though ask the permission of the apple tree and possibly lazy Lawrence that pixie pony will be galloping around he won't let you take it without a fight after all and if you are out and about on a west country village night you might well see apples placed on people's door stops and above their lintels will hung over their doorways because apples here keep away mischief it is occurring if you cut an apple in half at this time of year and give half to your loved one and eat the other half yourself you will bond together for eternity I think one of my apple videos from a couple of years ago has an old a gypsy Romani love spell in it which shows you how to bind and a broken marriage using apples that is my general overview for 2023's October have a lot of fun with a lot of apples and watch out for those mischief nights where the old godbucker is at play so with that said let's move on to the day today nitty gritty and we're going to start with not the first of October like I normally do but the fourth this is the traditional date when swallows leave our shores and migrate south for warmer climbs to overwinter in Africa I think they've actually already left me though I haven't seen a swallow for ages I think they know it's been a bit cold for them and they've gone so it means that winter really is upon us the 12th of October is a traditional divination day now I don't know why but if there is a westerly breeze today then the weather is going to be set fair for the rest of winter so hope for a westerly wind on the 12th the 14th of October is the night of the new moon and this new moon is in Libra Libra rules diplomacy and harmony so it's a great time now to settle disputes and make up those arguments that is the bubbling below the surface people come together in October there is also something very exciting going on the 14th which is an annular solar eclipse this is the typical ring of fire eclipse where the moon only cuts out the center of the sun and you see the sun's rays behind it it is viewable from western america down through central america to brazil not in europe sadly but it is a pretty spectacular affair so look out for that now eclipses of course bring a lot of superstitions with them so let's just go through a couple of them pregnant women do not gaze at the sun during a solar eclipsed all the moon for that matter or either and actually i'm not supposed to gaze at any of it because if you do so it may harm your baby however an american belief to prevent this harm is to carry a safety pin it's an easy fix isn't it if you want to go and have a look at the eclipse likewise pregnant women do not rub your tummies during an eclipse because this will mean that your baby is birthmarked and couples do not get fruity during an eclipse because if you conceive the baby will be a demon one this belief is so entrenched with our ancestors that it was banned there was no congress allowed between a married man and a woman during an eclipse next up on our list is the 15th of october which is the start of the uk cider making season traditionally cider is made when the moon begins to wax and the year begins to wane so that starts from today apparently it brings out the best flavors in the juices the 18th of october is st luke's day which is another day of divination now although this is a christian festival i think it was based on something slightly older because it's got so many traditions associated with it which are a bit pagan in my opinion if ever i found one so one of my favorite ones is you take your apple and you peel it into a long thin strip you take that strip turn around three times and throw it over your left shoulder yes it's left no it's not i got that wrong float over your right shoulder and look at the letter that it creates as it falls on the floor that letter will then it could signify the name of your future partner i have to say i did do this quite a lot when i was younger and i always got a j and i'm married to a james so it works you can also exchange silver tokens with your loved one so if you take a piece of silver and break it in half give half to your loved one and keep half yourself on this day it means that you've exchanged a token of love together which will last throughout your life likewise if you dream of your future partner today and in the dream he is happy and smiling then you will have a blessed and happy union however if you dream of a man who's scowling and being mean oh woe betide you the 22nd of october is traditionally the day when the creation of the world took place now this is nothing to do with witchcraft but i like it so i thought i'd tell you about it so moving on to the 24th this is the day the sun enters scorpio now scorpio people are very merry and a bit lustful too they like a bit of hanky banky does a scorpio they also enjoy good company and making merry they have good fortune and tend to be rather attractive are you a scorpio let me know the 28th of october is the night of the full moon and of course this is one of the great full moons of the year where you should make moon water it's a supermoon it's known as hunter's moon it's known as the blood moon because it casts its light upon the earth during those darkened hours when you want to go hunting it is said and i'm going to do this this year that foraging for mushroom should be done under the light of a full moon because they provide the best flavour then so i'm going to try to let you know because i love mushrooms it is also the day when tradition states that you must expect it to rain it always rains on the 28th of october apparently i suspect that if it doesn't rain something is very wrong with the world it will rain on the 28th this full moon is the last supermoon of the year and also there is a partial lunar eclipse happening in europe this time it's only 12 percent of the moon passes through the earth's shadow so it's only obscured that's sort of the bottom of it not sure which side left or right don't know a lunar eclipse and a solar eclipse in the same month do suggest that great changes are afoot there is something that's going to happen we'll just have to wait and see what it is and of course the 31st is the night of halloween this is when the witches and the dead go forth across the world this is the night of the dead when the ghosts of the departed visit the earth and witches and demons are abroad at midnight the fairy court will ride out and should you have any loved ones who have been taken by the faith it is at this moment that you are able to recover them now i'm not going to go into the festival of halloween or so and any further than that because of course i'm going to give you my own dedicated video for it in the next couple of weeks so look out for that in the meantime it is well known that if you want to protect against halloween and all the dead that are walking then you need to keep in your house a female dog who's been spayed because apparently this will keep everything at bay likewise pumpkins are always good to ward off those evil spirits as well as marigolds or calendula the bright calendula flowers are beloved by the dead and in fact if you place a calendula flower on a gravestone of a loved one it will ensure that they do not stray from their grave that night and so that is my almanac for october what do you think what are your traditions do let me know if you've got anything to add to this because i love reading your comments so i've got a new shop opening up on patreon it's only got one thing in it at the moment but it will 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