Happy Halloween! Blessed Samhain!

I am about to start cooking for my Halloween party soon. I'll be taking lots of pictures to share with you all tomorrow! Hope everyone has a good and spooky night.

Samhain Resolutions

Samhain is the Pagan New Year, so I figured why not make some resolutions? There are some things I want to work on in the coming year:

Learn as much as possible about herbalism
Use my tarot deck
Connect with my spirit guide
Start writing things down- possibly in a BOS
Look more into my ancestry

I think learning about herbs is going to be my #1 thing for the coming year. It is something that seems interesting to me, and I figure if I dedicate myself to it for a year it will motivate me to actively learn. Everything else on the list is important, but not my main focus.

What do you want to work on in the coming year?

Glogster Halloween Dreamboard

I decided to try and make a dreamboard saying goodbye to animosity, fear, and sadness. I used glogster. It's something a teacher introduced me to and I was glad to be able to try it. It's just about 10:30 now. I'm going to finish looking at everyone's posts, and then sink into a nice deep sleep. I'll post about my Halloween tomorrow. There will be pictures!

Looking forward to beginning Soulcoaching tomorrow as well! =D

Happy Halloween/ Samhain!

Grandpa Ben

RIP Grandpa Ben

1932-2008

I gathered some the items for the alter I am dedicating to my Grandpa. It was really hard to do. The two pictures of him have been on our fridge. I borrowed them for this. The candle is a white tea light that I put black paint on. I probably wouldn't be able to light it anyway, as my parents don't like me having candles in my room. The card is from his funeral. The shotgun shell is from his 21 gun salute. The lighter was the one in his pocket on the day he died. He always had one with him.

The relationship I had with my Grandpa is hard to describe. I wouldn't say we were close. When I was younger I didn't see him much. He always worked a lot. When I did see him, he was a strict person. I think I began to understand him more as I got older. We still never got very close, but I began to care for him more. It is so different without him, and our family is not the same now that he is gone.

At this point words fail me. I never realized how much I missed him until very recently. He was there my entire life and then all of a sudden he's just not. We lost him in April and over the past few months things have changed dramatically in my family. It's hard to explain, but he was like the glue holding my dad's side of the family together. It seems to be falling apart now. Everyone in my family will always miss my Grandpa. Things can never be the same, but I hope they can get better.

Runes

With Halloween only a few days away it seems like a good time to talk about divination. I made a set of pumpkin seed runes on Saturday. I love them! They are the perfect seasonal runes. I haven’t seriously tried scrying yet, and I haven’t gotten the hang of tarot, but I enjoy runes.
For me runes are fun. I pull a rune out of my bag every morning. This daily rune just tells me what to expect that day. So far it’s worked out well.
When I first set out to learn more about runes I was suggested a ton of different websites. I found some useful, and some not so useful. I still don’t know as much as I could. One of the really useful websites I found is Eric Wodening’s Rune Pages. There is a lot of information here.

I, of course, also bought a book about runes when I first became interested in them. It is A Practical Guide to the Runes by Lisa Peschel. It’s an okay book with some good information in it.

I’m not sure what else there is to say. Halloween is on Friday! I’ll be going out trick or treating with a couple friends. We have a foreign exchange student from France who wants to experience a real American Halloween, so sometime that night we are also going to watch some scary movies. It should be fun!

As for Samhain, I didn’t realized how much I miss my Grandpa until I started thinking about what I would do. I am planning an alter right now. I’m gathering photos and other things for it this week. It’s going to be sad, remembering him, but I can’t think of a better night to face my emotions.