Hawthorne's Blog – October 2017 Archive (4)

This week we celebrate the sabbat of Samhain, when the veil between this world and the afterlife is at its thinnest point of the whole year.

Samhain is the end of the harvest season and the new solar year.

A festival of darkness and we live softly by candle light. We light special bonfires that have protective and cleansing powers.

We celebrate the lives of our Beloved Dead.

"Now is the Night of November Eve, as the Samhain rites…

This week we look at the so-called Holy Grail.

What is this thing that people are so enamoured of? Did it even exist? People have been searching for it for hundreds of years, and it seems whenever they decide they can't find it, they create stories about it.

So, let's travel back the the 12th century, where the myth of the Holy Grail seems to have it's beginnings. And we'll take a look at some of the embellishments that have been attached to it over…

We continue our celebration of Autumn as we look at some of the season's important associations.

Water is one of the elements in ancient Greek philosophy, and in Occult circles it's associated with the Western Quarter of the Circle, and with the season of Autumn. So we'll look at how and why Water got associated with the Autumn as we tie in some of their similar Magickal Properties.

Then we'll take a walk into an Autumn Garden with Ellen Dugan, well known herbalist and…

Let's create Magick through Masking!

If you're going a Halloween party, what will you GO AS? We all wear masks, although the extent to which we layer ourselves or are aware of them varies greatly.

Masks are a familiar and vivid element in many folk and traditional pageants, ceremonies, rituals and festivals, and are often of an ancient origin.

One reason for wearing a mask is to pretend to be someone or something else. The mask can be a kind of…