A nice ritual at a friend's house

One thing I like about our kind of holy days, they keep on going. It's a span of time and that means you get to do all the things, not just one.

So one night, we hung around home, watching our favorite movie (Practical Magic -- watch it every year), and giving candy to little ghosts, witches, fairies, pirates (LOTS of pirates) and zombies.

Next night, we met with friends for a ritual. It wasn't rehearsed and it stumbled a bit here and there but it was all full of heart and good natured sharing. We honored our ancestors and spoke a word or two for our loved ones who died this year.

Once the ritual was over, we went inside and gathered around the kitchen table -- another kind of ritual -- this one building friendship. We shared food and stories and laughter and then I did a few readings for folks and one young fellow read the cards for me. Then he read what wasn't in the cards and that was awesome, as he was very specific and told me things he couldn't have known. I usually get a Samhain reading from Lady Passion (Coven Oldenwilde) in Asheville, but this reading far exceeded any she ever gave me. (Though I still love the readings I get from her -- short and sweet (or not so sweet, depending on the year), and very accurate -- just not as detailed (as she has a line of about 20 to read for on Samhain night).

All that is done now and yet the season still goes on -- one more night to come -- and that one is astrological Samhain -- 15 degrees Scorpio. On that night, we'll honor the land spirits, the wandering ones, the ancestors, beloved dead, and we'll do our spell -- the one we do every year, laying to rest the lessons of the past year and laying the groundwork for what is to come in the new year.

I delight in the magic of this way of life.