October. This is the month that witchy folks crave all year long. Even those who don’t like the ending of Summer still get a little thrill when things start moving towards Samhain and the season of the witch. The nights are getting longer and cooler, and the last of the harvest is coming in. There’s a sense in the air that the veil is thinning, and we can feel the spirits of our ancestors growing closer. What a thrill!
We’ve pulled in the last of the tomatoes, but we need to wait until after the first frost to bring in the sunchokes. Our herbs have been harvested and dried for the year, and the leaves are just barely starting to turn. The geese have made their appearances and crows and hawks are everywhere. We still feed a slew of feral neighborhood cats, and I hope they’re all finding warm places to hide for the Winter.
Birthstones: Opal and tourmaline
Lunations:
October 1, 5:06pm EST Full Moon (Aries)
October 16, 3:32pm EST New Moon (Libra)
October 31, 10:51am EST Full Moon (Taurus)
Astronomy:
October 4: Pluto goes direct
October 14: Mercury goes retrograde
October 21-22: Orionid Meteor Shower
Celtic Tree Month:
Ivy (Sept 30- October 27): End of the harvest, looking back at our successes and losses, strengthening our resolve to face the future, taking the long-term view, fidelity and fertility, protection, healing, good luck for women and brides, guards against negativity and disaster, reaches around and through obstacles to find light and nourishment, reaching out, expansion.
Reed (October 28- November 24): Introverting, withdrawing, connecting with the past and with spirit, ancestors, messages from the spirit world, culling that which doesn’t serve us, dreaming- but not planning. Seeking basic truth, finding direction, giving meaning and purpose to your journey, skill and direction, secret strength and secret motivations, seeing beneath the surface.
Holidays (mundane):
October 12: Native American’s Day or Indigenous People’s Day
October 31: Halloween
Holidays (Pagan):
October 31: Samhain!
Themes and general activities for the month: Bringing in the last of the harvest, corn mazes, haunted houses, decorating for trick or treaters, making warming/cozy foods, beginning to work on Yule presents. Divination, connecting with the ancestors, cleaning the house for the long Winter months ahead.
Herbs I’m using: Cayenne pepper in the chili, dried oregano and basil from the garden, chai tea for the long, cool nights.
Stones I’m using: Shungite sent to me by a friend for protection, whatever I manage to find at the rock show that’s coming up the first weekend of October. I know it’s not good for social distancing, but I can’t wait!
Goddess of the Month: The first card I pulled was Eostre, and since she was our Goddess for last month, I drew again. The second time, I brought up Isis, representative of rebirth. So she goes right along with Eostre, who was all about new beginnings, and so I’m wondering what my this new beginning will be. Let’s be ready!
3 card reading:
First, we start with the Lovers reversed. So we’re trying to put things together for ourselves, but it doesn’t seem to be working. This could be distance in a romantic relationship, or even a balance that we’re unable to achieve. Either way, there are two parts that aren’t coming together to make a cohesive whole for us.
Next, we see the Page of Ghosts, which corresponds to the Page of Cups. So things will get better if we go back to the start. We need to reclaim that youthful spirit of excitement when we try to achieve our goals. Maybe the things that we’ve always done won’t work for us anymore. Maybe we need to take a new approach and find out joie de vivre again.
Finally, we come to the Ace of Bats reversed. This card corresponds to the Ace of Swords. So honestly, maybe it’s not the time to start something new anyways. Maybe it’s best to see what we’re already doing that we can refine, revamp, and reignite our passion for. Is there a passion project that you’ve stared and never finished? Maybe it’s time to see that through rather than starting something brand new.
The special guidance card is Scrying. Look into the darkness and trust your intuition. Trust what comes back to you, because it’s coming from a place of your deep inner knowing.
From Sunset to Star Rise
By Christina Georgette Rosetti
Go from me, summer friends, and tarry not:
I am no summer friend, but wintry cold,
A silly sheep benighted from the fold,
A sluggard with a thorn-choked garden plot.
Take counsel, sever from my lot your lot,
Dwell in your pleasant places, hoard your gold;
Lest you with me should shiver on the wold,
Athirst and hungering on a barren spot.
For I have hedged me with a thorny hedge,
I live alone, I look to die alone:
Yet sometimes, when a wind sighs through the sedge,
Ghosts of my buried years, and friends come back,
My heart goes sighing after swallows flown
On sometime summer’s unreturning track.
My personal tides and goals: I’m really wanting to start writing again, and I’m slowly but surely reclaiming my energy to do so. I’ve been reading Husbear’s writing too, and he’s not only a great writer, but he’s inspiring me to do better too! Now that the nights are getting longer, hopefully we’ll have some writing nights. 🙂