Parting the Mists

I’m back with the card of the day! For the first two weeks of October, I will be mixing up the decks and then switch back to the Halloween Oracle after that. It simply felt like the cards weren’t connecting as well, so I’m mixing it up a bit. Hope everyone enjoys their Sunday and last day of September. We are planning a stroll in a nearby memorial forest.

This card definitely speaks as we see the leaves across the street float to the ground and the nights getting crisp. This card is loaded with change symbolism: snake shedding it’s skin, a skull, an egg, mouth, and dragonfly. Standing grounded in the center of this change is the Horned God merged with a Dryad tree spirit. They show us not to fear or struggle against change – things are always changing and we must learn how to roll with it.

Blessings!

Change is Unavoidable

Change is unavoidable – every second of every day you undergo change. Your perception is altered by what you see, feel, and experience from one moment to the next. Your body ages and moves closer to death with every breath. Autumn will always come to end of the bounty of summer, and the new hope of spring will always follow the winter. Change is all around you. Do not let your fear bind you to the past and prevent you from enjoying your present and future. Stop fighting. You cannot resist the inevitable so choose instead to embrace it with acceptance and peace.

Messenger Oracle by Ravynne Phelan

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Forgiving can be tough – but it definitely beats holding onto a grudge. Shake the old crap away and enjoy your weekend!

FORGIVENESS – Reducing burden

A wrong is done
Consequences you cannot deny
But to hold a grudge is to drink poison
and think that the other person will die.

Being a cold-season festival, Halloween is the perfect time to pause and think about how things actually are in our lives and what heavy burdens we do not wish to carry through these harder, leaner times. Some of this heavy-heartedness may relate to old relationships or grievances. Some may relate to negative feelings we hold onto tightly about others and even a lack of compassion for the “mistakes” we have ourselves made.

It is said that it takes a “big person to apologize” but in many ways it takes an even bigger person to forgive. When we hold grudges, the negative energy is incredibly toxic. It is like drinking a poison and expecting the “other” unforgiven person to die! Whilst we may even harbor feelings of revenge (and to be honest, that does feel good for a while), it is important that we move those feelings along to forgiveness and release as soon as possible for our own health and wellbeing.

If you have chosen this card, think about who it is that you could be forgiving – and that includes yourself.

The Halloween Oracle by Stacey Demarco, art by Jimmy Manton

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“Weave and spin, weave and spin,
this is how the work begins.
Mend and heal, mend and heal,
Take the dream and make it real.”

– Pagan chant by Starhawk

We are all weavers and spinners of our lives, whether or not we consider ourselves witches. In our modern world, it’s easy to turn over our power to create our lives to societal norms, family expectations, and more. Don’t forget you have the power to change your life if you choose. Blessings!

THE WITCH – The earthly weaver of the worlds

Earth, Air, Fire, Water
A woman lovely, a woman strange
Weaver of the worlds, moon’s daughter
Witch: The catalyst for change

Witches have had bad PR for a couple of millennia now. Originally the healers or cunning women of the village, the very word “witch” is believed to come from the Celtic word “wicce” meaning weaver or wise.** When the new religion of Christianity spread through the land, the custodians of the old Pagan ways, in part witches, were labeled as evil and – as we know from history – persecuted. They were driven underground (or under the night sky) into the shadows of misunderstanding and darkness.

However, for the purpose of Halloween, let’s look at witches as the weavers of magic and change. Through spells and rituals and even through herbal recipes (yes, often brewed in a cauldron), they weave the powers of this world and the next in synergy to solve problems and heal.

Holding the Witch card means that you can weave your own change throughout life and that magic indeed is afoot! You must understand that you have power and it is real. It may also indicate that others may be threatened by your developing personal power and that they may not appreciate or like the changes in you as you grow. Be prepared for this and do not be discouraged. New friends and better opportunities will be attracted instead.

The Halloween Oracle by Stacey Demarco

** This is the oracle author’s view. The etymology of the word “witch” is actually much more complicated than this, and debate goes on about it. I suggest looking it up in the Online Etymology Dictionary and historical sources.

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I can honestly say I don’t have many regrets – even things that didn’t go well often taught me a lesson that I needed. But for those few things that can still haunt our minds, we have to realize that we cannot undo what has been done. Once we have learned our lesson from it, it’s time to let go of guilt and regret and move on. Blessings!

GHOST – Regret

Like smoke rising from the ashes
A mist from the sea
The dead they are watching
They have come to haunt me

The traditional definition of a ghost is the apparition of the spirit or soul of a formerly living being. Ghosts can be both in human form or animal and even occasionally inanimate objects such as ghostly ships have been reported. The belief in spirits and ghosts is extremely widespread across time and cultures and different words such as spirits, wraith, phantom, and shade have been used to refer to them.

Ghosts can be both people that we have known (ancestors, for example) who visit to assist us, or presences that are bound to a particular place because they have found it difficult to let go even after death. The concept of the haunted house or the “cursed” place is the basis for many a creepy ghost story. In fact, the most interesting ghost stories often involve a very angry or destructive spirit coming back to wreak its revenge after death. (The Old Norse word for “ghost” has the same root word as the word “fury”).

It is said that spirits that cannot let go of this world have a reason for this. Sometimes it is to warn the living, to guide them, but generally it is because they haven’t finished their business here on the plane of the living. They have regrets that they wish to resolve.

Should the Ghost come gliding into your life during divination, it may indicate that you have some regrets to let go of. Holding grudges or regrets is burdensome work and it weighs us down eventually. By taking actions to free ourselves of these old burdens, we clear the way for more rightful and wise action for the future. We can begin to live again fully if we let go of what was and step into new possibilities.

The Halloween Oracle by Stacey Demarco, art by Jimmy Manton

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As we head toward the Autumn Equinox (AKA: Harvest Home/Mabon/Feast of Avalon), apples play an important role both in this harvest festival as a symbol of abundance and in the upcoming Samhain, where it specifically is used for divination.

But here with this card, we are reminded that the apple has been connected symbolically in other ways: In the story of Adam and Eve (even if that’s not the correct fruit), the poison apple of fairy tales, and more. Consider your risks and rewards, whether you need to take more chances or perhaps be less reckless.

Blessings!

APPLE – Risk and reward

Sweetest icon
Risky red desire
Poison and freedom
Tempting hearts afire

Apples have been a symbol of Samhain for a very long time. Apples, when cut in half, have a seed pattern that looks like a pentagram and so the Celts held the fruit to be sacred. Bobbing for apples, a game traditionally played at Halloween, has its origins in the Samhain festival and is one of the oldest associated with this celebration.

The traditional way to play is to place 3 or 13 apples into a barrel of water and the game is to try and bite an apple whilst it floats and bobs in the water. Hands must not be used and people often compete with each other, bobbing at the same time. It is believed that the Romans brought the custom to Britain and there are quite a few images recorded through art of the activity in both cultures. It was said that unmarried women who placed the apple they had bobbed under their pillow would dream of their future husband. In Newfoundland and some parts of Ireland even today, Halloween is called Snap Apple Night.

Candy apples (apple on a stick covered in toffee), although not quite as popular now as they once were as Halloween fare, are now making a comeback as a fun and simple treat to prepare on this night.

Apples have been an iconic part of mythos from ancient times to modern – the story of the poison apple in Snow White, to the Roman Goddess Pomona’s magical apple tree, to the Christians’ tempting fruit in the Garden of Eden. Should you receive this “Apple” in your reading, it’s time to look at how risk plays out in your life. Are you hedging your bets and not trying anything new? Do you want change but are not willing to change anything? Are you willing to risk to get a greater reward? Or alternatively, are you risking too much, too often?

The Halloween Oracle by Stacey Demarco, art by Jimmy Manton

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I love the balance of this card: An oracle for the future and sustenance and sweetness for the present. Blessings on your new week!

BARMBRACK – Sweetness and synergy

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Pay attention to your energy, and who might be draining it more than they have the right to. Sometimes, we have to learn to put up stronger boundaries for our own emotional and physical health. Now, I am off to raise my energy with some cornmeal rye waffles. 😉 Happy Sunday!

VAMPIRE – Emotional Intelligence

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Ancestral roots affect us more than we often imagine, even those of us who may not know all of our lineage and ancestral roots. Open yourself to the message the ancestors whisper from your blood and soul, not just your family tree. Blessings!

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While the idea of zombies as being reanimated by an infection is common now, this is now the historical or folkloric basis of the zombie. Being used by someone else – losing control of either your own soul or body – is the key to what the zombie represents traditionally (though some modern interpretations of the zombie as a symbol of our mindlessness and compliance to consumerism and other forms of societal Novocain is a valid reinterpretation). Honestly both interpretations speak to loss of control – or of someone being controlling when they shouldn’t be. Perhaps now is time to look at this issue in your life.

Blessings!

Zombie – Control

The dead arise
voices a-mumbling
after our brains
our screams they are tumbling

Zombies have become quite the fashion recently, much like vampires. Turn on the television and you can’t escape the moaning and groaning of these, the living dead. (And yes, they do seem to be after your brain!) There are even public zombie walks – where people dress us as zombies and appear en mass on roads and in cities.

But zombies are not merely a fun icon of popular culture. Traditionally, they are mainly associated with the African and Haitian Vodou religion. Zombies are said to be dead bodies reanimated by incantations chanted by a learned practitioner (called a “bokor”) and they are usually enlivened for a purpose.

The practitioner is said to capture part of a living soul to animate the body and that is always a temporary action as the soul cannot be contained in that decomposing body for long or God will take the soul back.

One of the most frightening aspects of zombiism is the idea of our souls and consciousness being trapped inside a body that does not do our bidding but someone else’s. Another is the idea of being buried alive – the fate of some, it is said, who get trapped in already dead bodies.

Should the zombi step unsteadily into your life, it’s time to look at the concept of control. Do you want to control everything, leaving little to free expression? Do you choose partners who are not your equal so that they are more easily manipulated and changed to your liking? Or do you allow that to happen to you? If you are not living your most authentic life, it’s time to look at why and how to change that.

The Halloween Oracle by Staci Demarco, art by Jimmy Manton

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