The Swamp Nemeton

💀 Connect with the spirits of the dead through meditation or rituals.

🕸 Watch your favorite spooky/witchy movies to awaken Samhain's energy.

💀 Pull some tarot cards for guidance.

🕸️ Take a walk in nature for grounding, clear your mind, and appreciate the beauty of autumn.

💀 Since Samhain is also a fire festival, connect with the element of fire by lighting candles or a small bonfire (always safely).

🕸️ Craft yourself a Samhain mask, inspired by ancient Egyptian funeral masks, which were believed to protect the soul on its journey. By creating your own “death mask,” you symbolically protect yourself when the veil is thin.

💀 Celebrate Samhain also as Nutcrack Night, by enjoying the season’s nuts, you can crack them open to release their energy and use them for their magical properties, whether by eating them or using them in spells.

🕸️ Practice candle and fire magick.

💀 Try scrying or mirror gazing, divination is especially powerful when the veil is thin (this whole month especially, and in November too).

🕸️ Do a simple releasing spell: take a leaf, focus on something you want to let go of, crush it gently, and then release it into nature.

💀 Host a Samhain feast for your loved ones. Leave an empty place at the table with food and a photo of the deceased, inviting their spirit to join you.

🕸️ Do some trick-or-treating with baked cookies or small crystals to share your energy with others.

💀 Try an apple peel divination: peel an apple in one long, continuous spiral and throw it over your shoulder. The shape it forms is said to reveal the first initial of your future love.

🕸️ Offer wine libations or food offerings outdoors (make sure they’re safe for animals).

💀 Visit a cemetery or the grave of a loved one. Leave flowers or other offerings to honor them.

🕸️ Add photos of your ancestors or deceased loved ones to your altar.

💀 Wear black to honor the Sabbat and the departed.

🕸️ Bake Samhain treats (like soul cakes, barmbrack, Colcannon, or pies) with your desired intentions and positive energy.

💀 Harvest the last fruits and vegetables of the season.

🕸️ Dance and celebrate both life and death.

💀 Invoke and honor deities associated with this sabbath, such as Hades, Hekate, Morrigan, Persephone, Anubis, and more.

🕸️ Use divination tools like pendulums, dice, or tarot cards to communicate with spirits or seek guidance.

💀 Collect acorns, chestnuts, or hazelnuts and keep them until Ostara. Care for them and charge them with your energy, then return them to nature in spring as an offering.

🕸️ Collect animal bones or feathers to honor the natural cycle of life and death.

💀 Play apple bobbing (traditionally done to honor the goddess Pomona). Successfully catching an apple symbolized a successful future relationship. You can place your caught apple under your pillow to dream of your future partner.

🕸️ Try reading in tea leaves.

💀 Carve pumpkins with sigils, runes, or symbols you want to attract into your life.

🕸️ Bake a pumpkin or apple pie and carve a sigil on top.

💀 Focus on healing and transformation spells.

🕸️ Wear Samhain colors in your clothing, makeup, or nails (orange, purple, white, black, brown, and gold).

💀 Set up your altar with Samhain or autumn symbols.

🕸️ Use crow feathers or crow motifs to honor death and transformation.

💀 Carve symbols onto candles and anoint them with essential oils and herbs.

🕸️ Visualize your intentions and desires clearly, and ask your deities or ancestors for help, but remember, they guide you, they don’t do all the work for you.

💀 Try a dumb supper, eating in silence to connect with spirits and ancestors.

🕸️ Connect with crystals associated with Samhain (hematite, obsidian, black tourmaline, bloodstone, smoky quartz).

💀 Decorate your home with Halloween or Samhain-themed decor to welcome the energy of the season.

🕸️ Prepare a dinner and leave offerings for your dead loved ones.

💀 For many pagans, Samhain marks the Witches’ New Year, so channel your energy into spells for new beginnings, healing, transformation, and manifestation, and honor deities connected with witchcraft.

Anubis: God of death, mummification, cemeteries, funerary rites, embalming, protector of graves and tombs, psychopomp, guiding souls to the Underworld (Egyptian)

Hel: Goddess of the underworld and death, ruler of the dead (Norse)

Hades: God of the dead, ghosts, necromancy, funeral rites, king of the Underworld (Greek)

Morana: Goddess of winter, rebirth, death, dreams (Slavic)

Keres: Female spirits (daimones) of violent or cruel death (battle, accident, murder, disease) (Greek)

Yama: God of justice, death, underworld, judgment of souls, afterlife, ghosts (Hindu)

Persephone: Goddess of the underworld, Queen of the dead (Greek)

The Morrígan: Goddess of war, fate, death, destiny, destruction (Celtic)

Hecate/Hekate: Goddess of the underworld, darkness, death, necromancy, ghosts, crossroads, spirits, and magic; guide of souls, intermediary between the living and the dead, holder of the keys to the Underworld (Greek)

Cailleach Bheur: Goddess of winter, storms, death (Celtic)

Thanatos: God and personification of non-violent death, psychopomp guiding souls to the Underworld (Greek)

Izanami: Goddess of death, motherhood, creation (Japanese)

Mors: Goddess and personification of death and darkness (Roman)

Kali: Goddess of death, time, rebirth, destruction, transformation (Hindu)

Ammit: Goddess of the afterlife, death, underworld, execution (Egyptian)

Hermes: Psychopomp god, guiding dead souls safely to the Underworld (Greek)

Osiris: God of the underworld, death, rebirth, resurrection, judge of the dead, afterlife (Egyptian)

Pluto: God of the underworld, wealth, the dead (Roman)

Mictlantecuhtli: God of death and the underworld (Aztec)

Mictecacíhuatl: Goddess of death and the underworld (Aztec)

Dionysus: God of madness, savagery, death and rebirth, transcender of death, associated with reincarnation and the eternal soul, embodiment of the assurance of life after death (Greek)

Melinoe: Goddess of ghosts, restless spirits, the dead, nightmares, funerary rites, fear and madness (Greek)

Odin: God of death, war, wisdom, knowledge, battle (Norse)

Veles: God of the underworld, death, protector of souls, psychopomp, spirit communication (Slavic)

Yanluo Wang: Ruler of Diyu (underworld), God of death (Chinese)

Charon: Psychopomp, ferryman of the underworld, carrier of souls with funeral rites (Greek)

Ereshkigal: Goddess of death, Queen of the underworld (Mesopotamian/Sumerian)

Makaria: Goddess of blessed death, peaceful afterlife (Greek)

Donn: God of the dead, psychopomp guiding souls to the afterlife (Celtic/Irish)

Freyja: Goddess of fertility, death, love, war (Norse)

Namtar: God of disease, fate, death (Mesopotamian)

Nephthys: Goddess of death, mourning, night, magic (Egyptian)

Badb: Goddess of war, death, prophecy (Celtic)

Arianrhod: Goddess of stars, death, moon, reincarnation, psychopomp (Celtic/Welsh)

Nehebkau: Primordial serpent God of the afterlife and funerary rites (Egyptian)

Gefjon: Goddess who oversees those who die as virgins (Norse)

Nergal: God of war, plague, the underworld (Mesopotamian)

Anput: Goddess of funerals and mummification (Egyptian)

Animisoul

After all, what is animism?

Everything alive carries a soul,

The planet’s very first religion,

Animating life, a gift in motion.

Some may laugh, some may doubt,

Yet they whisper to their pets—

Practicing animism unawares,

Merging into one living breath.

This bond is sacred, deeply woven:

Beyond the visible lies the subtle plane.

Every form of life holds meaning,

Stone, plant, creature—all sustain.

They will say again it’s sorcery

To claim that every being speaks.

But if we, with soul and will, exist—

Why not believe in such mystique?

And animism is not “primitive,”

It’s here, alive, a living science.

The plants proclaim: we are medicine,

Earth reveals through grace and guidance.

So animate your days by honoring life,

The “secret” clear since the beginning:

Respect the universal animation,

The eternal union of body and Spirit.

Apple: spirit work, offerings, love, healing, beauty, wisdom, harvest

Apricot: love, self love

Avocado: beauty, love, lust, fertility, spell work

Banana: wealth, luck, spirituality, religion, masculinity

Blueberry: protection, banishment, curses

Blackberry: protection, fertility, femininity, funerals, afterlife, moving on

Cantaloupe: spell work, protection, grounding, energy work

Cherry: lust, love, fertility

Clementine: childhood, dreams

Coconut: protection, cleansing, femininity

Cranberry: holidays, blood magic, spirit work

Date: fertility, luck, money

Dragon fruit: lust, passion, spell work

Durian: curses, cleansing, protection

Fig: happiness, divination, love

Grapefruit: cleansing

Grape: money, spell work, fertility, offerings

Guava: love, self love, lust

Honeydew: cleansing, energy, love

Jackfruit: divination, spell work, happiness

Kiwifruit: health, love, lust, happiness

Kumquat: luck, health, money

Lemon: cleansing, purification, protection, curse breaking

Lime: cleansing, protection, love

Lychee: love, self love, femininity, beauty

Mango: love, lust, fertility

Nectarine: love, self love, spell work

Orange: cleansing, protection, divination

Papaya: curse breaking, banishing, spirit work, love

Passion fruit: lust, love, passion

Peach: fertility, love, happiness, spirit work

Pear: offerings, happiness, luck, money, confidence

Persimmon: healing, love, luck, protection

Pineapple: protection, health, offerings, money, luck

Plantain: fertility, masculinity, lust, passion

Plum: love, healing, offerings

Pomegranate: offerings, blood magic, fertility, divination, spell work

Prune: cleansing, protection

Raspberry: love, dreams, health

Strawberry: love, wishes, dreams, happiness

Starfruit: lunar/solar magic, spell work, cleansing

Tangerine: solar magic, strength, energy work

Tomato: protection, cleansing, love, passion

Watermelon: healing, femininity, lust, love, spirit work, cleansing

What Are Spell Bags?

Spell Bags are usually small bags that contain a range of ingredients linked to the intention of your spell. They can sometimes be known as different names, or have slight cultural differences. For the purpose of this post I will refer to a spell bag, but they may also be called spell sachets, charm bags, and in some cultures, mojo bags (please do your own research). You can also make spell jars, which are pretty much the same, only you use a jar and not a bag.

Bag Colors

Gold - wealth, protection, the God Silver - prosperity, the moon, the Goddess Yellow - healing Orange - travel, communication, messages Green - nature, growth, prosperity, abundance, friendship Blue - peace, calm, wisdom, benevolence Purple - wisdom, wealth, grandeur, mysteries, justice Red - success, romance, strength, protection Pink - love, healing, friendship Black - absorbs negative energy

How to Make a Spell Bag

Think about your intention for making the spell bag… Why are you making it?… What do you want to get from it?

Think about ingredients you want to put into the spell bag and their correspondences… What ingredients will fit into your spell bag?… What specific ingredients are associated with your intentions (for example, what herbs are used for protection)

Collect your bag and ingredients, and focus your intent on each of them. You may also want to write a magickal chant. This can be simply read out, or written down to leave inside the spell bag.

Assemble your spell bag.

Spend time either meditating on your intention, or reciting your magickal chant.

Find a place to put your spell bag. This may simply be on your altar, or in your pocket. Alternatively, there may be a specific place you want to put it (such as by your bed for a sleep spell bag, or in the corner of your room for protection).

- Black Salt: Keep salt in your ashtray and infuse it with whatever the house is smoking :)

- Cosmic Dust: Put a magnet in your rain gutter and it'll attract the tiny meteorites that fall on your roof. Takes time to collect.

- Bones: Find local hunter's drop sites for intact & well preserved bones during fall.

- Cats: Keep your bestie's claw shavings and whiskers!!

- Gems/Rocks: Search streams/wilderness in your area for pretty stones and polish them :)

- Local Herbs: Learn about your herbal neighbors and their uses. There's plenty of plant identifying apps and it's a great excuse to go outside and learn to forage for your own supplies.

- Bottles: You can literally get flat packs of mason jars for 10$. You don't need fancy witch bottles for everything babes. Most of the time I cut up an old shirt and make satchels instead, or bind ingredients in a large leaf.

Think about all the ingredients you see everyday. Crushed fall leaves or pine needles. Ocean/rain/river/snow water. Acorns, walnuts, pecans. Spit, hair, fingernails. Banana peels, apple seeds, and egg shells. You don't even need a garden, just the "weeds" growing outside your house right now. All of them have their season, purpose, and use. Make your ingredients personal to you, your area, and your experience. There's no "grocery list" for witchy shit and you never need to spend a penny when nature has everything you need right there!

*Graveyard Dirt has been removed from this list because proper conduct surrounding collecting that ingredient takes a lot to explain and I shouldn't encourage anyone to potentially do something misinformed and extremely disrespectful. It's an ingredient my family has used for years & that I personally find to be a rewarding field trip. Please look up warnings and respectful behavior surrounding sourcing your ingredients.

**Here is my informational post on research in Witchcraft. Do NOT stop your research short on one post or take any stranger online as an authority.

Before you go protect yourself you don't want a spirit attached to you.

Bring coins as offerings to the gatekeepers.

Bring with you offering for the spirits (food, water, flowers ect...) and leave it by a tree or away from the headstones for the spirits.

Make sure you don't step on anyone and apologiz if you do by accident.

Clean up neglected tombstones.

Ask before you take dirt. Use your intuition or divination to get a response.

Don’t take anything that is left for the dead.

Don't leave trash behind and if you find trash clean it.

Leave the way you came.

In traditional witchcraft, we often come across mentions of the enigmatic Witch Father. His Folklore is scattered, and there is little consensus to who He is. The mythology of Witch Father folklore is spread across centuries, hidden in tales of the Devil and in the transcripts from witch trials. He is a multifaceted being who rules over life, death, initiations, knowledge, and the untamed wilderness lurking at the edges of society.

The Witch Father is an archetypal Divine Masculine Spirit that illuminates life and is a lord of death. Witch Father is a catchall title for the myriad spirits witches have historically contracted with and have since been omitted by the witch trial transcripts across Europe. 

He is most commonly known as the Devil in today’s craft. As we know him, The Witch Father is an initiator and holds the keys to our disinhibition towards pleasure. He opens the way to occult knowledge and gives us the opportunity to explore (legal) pleasures without the need for guild or shame. Walking with the Witch Father allows us to dive into the hidden realms and learn the Occult Arts to change our lives. He also allows us to revel in primal human desires. 

As the Initiator into Witchcraft, the Witch Father takes on the mantle of the Light Betwixt the Horns. He comes into our lives and offers us the choice to go down this path and walk with Him. He grants us an understanding of magick, nature, and pleasure. He empowers us to uncover our Truth and the Truth of the World. As the initiator, some see the Witch Father as Lucifer. He is also the Serpent who revealed to Eve that the fruit from the Tree of Life will not cause her to die but will grant the wisdom of the universe.

The Witch Father allows space for us to free ourselves from the inhibitions placed on us by general society, and especially the church. He encourages us to rebel, sing, dance, and uncover wisdom. He leads the Witch’s Sabbath, which grants us a place to revel in the freedoms offered there. By leading us to this sacred experience, He fills his role as an emanation of the untamed wilderness, the primal subconscious of our most human desires. He gives us the Church of Nature. Taking the liturgical prayers of the Church and the Book of Psalms, mixing that with more ancient pagan animism, we are given access to a hidden power through His teachings.

Now, while I talk as if the Witch Father is a God, he is not. He is an ancient and powerful spirit who has led witches over the centuries and demands reverence. He is not all-powerful and is not a creator. He works his charms through magic and shapes the world. He is not a distant, impersonal being. He is immediate to us and is a mentor for us. 

Disinhibition

At the Witch’s Sabbat, our spirits fly away to commune with Our Devil, other witches and spirits in His retinue. It was a place to mix business and pleasure. At the Sabbat, witches would learn new spells, come together to work rituals, learn new forms of magick from the Witch Father, and of course partake in enjoyment. 

The Sabbath is a place of Initiation for new witches and also a place for learning new aspects of the craft. Once the business concludes, the Sabbat becomes a celebration. We may forget the staunch rules of mundane society and revel in our animalistic and beastial joys. There is singing, dancing, food and drink. We can indulge in these desires and these delicacies. All of which is orchestrated and gifted to us by the Witch Father. 

The Wild

There is a deep connection between the Witch Father and Nature. They are ‌synonymous with each other. He is an emanation of the land and its spirits. As Christianity became the dominant religion, and as society shifted further away from living in harmony with Nature, the figure of the folkloric Devil grew. He calls to us to return to the untamed lands and to forget the society that weighs us down. He offers liberation instead of our oppression. 

The Witch Father, as Nature, holds a duality over life and death. He is life itself and the bringer of light. But he is also the Lord of Death and of shadows. As the year turns, we see both aspects and the cyclical nature of them. Death giving way to new life and of life giving way to death. He is destruction and creation. Death and resurrection. 

Even His iconography and the existing descriptions that we have of the Devil show the immense connection He has to the Land. He is a shapeshifter comfortable in being a recognizable animal, a humanoid form, or even a hybrid. He reminds us of our baser instincts and that we are not above animals or the land just because we, as humans, have subjugated them for centuries. 

He is the Horned one, the light betwixt the horns, Terra Pater, Primus Magus. And he has revealed himself to us in so many other forms throughout the centuries. It’s hard to pigeonhole the Witch Father as any one being, or to even say “this is what he looks like.” He’s shown us he is comfortable changing his shape on a whim. He takes on the mantles of mentor, guide, and is a safe space for us to let our guard down and find enjoyment outside of our mundane lives. 

Old Scratch

Old Scratch is a more antiquated term for The Devil or Satan primarily found in the Southern United States and the South Midlands. This name has been memorialized in Faustian Folklore such as “The Devil and Tom Walker” and “The Devil and Daniel Webster” where our protagonist sells his soul to the devil for prosperity. 

This reinforces the theme that our Witch Father, the Folkloric Devil, offers us a chance to change our luck and our lives. Now, in these stories, the protagonist is taken away and dragged into the fires of hell, but in the living practice of Traditional Witchcraft, it doesn’t happen that way. We see these stories as what happens when trying to break deals with the Otherworld. Contracts and Pacts made with Spirits should be kept up with. It’s imperative. 

Black Shuck

In East Anglian folklore, Black Shuck is an omen of death. If you see him, it is said that you will die before the year is up, and if you meet his eye you’ll be dragged away. 

The first mention of the Black Shuck is in “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” in 1127 where He is affiliated with a Wild Hunt that was in Petersborough from Lent through Easter. Later on, in the 1500s, he is said to have broken into a church and killed two paritioners while kneeling in prayer. 

Eclectic Grove is a new Discord server meant for Witches and Pagans to come together, learn from one another, make friends, and form strong friendships. You must be open to others having a different belief and/or path from yourself. There are all kinds of pagan paths out there and this server aims to include them. Please be aware that this server is brand new, it will take some time for things to come together. Please bear with me as this is a one man project.

If you want to come and check out it, feel free, you are more than welcome. If you decide to stay, welcome to The Eclectic Grove.

Let's be honest, religion and consistent practice can be HARD, especially when you're chronically ill, disabled, mentally ill or neurodivergent. This is a list of lower energy practices you can do to connect with your Gods when you're having a rough day.

Pray. You don't have to say the prayer. You don't have to do the full cleansing and offering. Just think about the prayer. It could be as simple as "'Deity Name', thank you. I'm thinking of you and appreciate you."

Dedicate any self care you do to the Gods. You've got to take meds? awesome. it's now a devotional activity.

If you can, light a tea light candle. You can think about who you're dedicating it to as you're lighting it.

Tell them about your day. Have a simple conversation with them (again, this can be in your head if needed).

Offer some water! Water is a great offering if you don’t have the energy to cook, collect or buy something.

Incense is also a great offering because you can light it then forget about it and your house won’t burn down (if you follow regular safety measures). 

Resting. Your deities want you to be okay. Dedicating your rest to your deities is especially great if you feel guilty for allowing yourself time to heal.

Turn on a video of someone reading mythos! 

Put on a deity playlist. There are plenty of pre-made ones on Spotify. 

Veil or bind your hair! Whenever I’m low energy I’ll throw my hair in a ponytail and bind it that way. It doesn’t have to be extravagant. 

Make a Pinterest board for them!

Post on a digital altar! There are plenty of discord servers that have digital altars and temples. You could also make a devotional Tumblr blog. 

Change your phone lock/home screen to something that reminds you of your Deity.

Cernunnos: Lord of the Wild Things Talon Abraxas

The Horned One, the Lord of the Wild Things, and Master of the Wild Hunt, Cernunnos is an ancient god in the Celtic religion. It is thought that he took a goddess of Spring as his wife, although which exact Springtime deity is unknown. He represents natural cycles, dying and being reborn with the seasons. These seasons can be marked by their respective festivals: Samhain (Winter), Beltane (Summer), Imbolg (Spring), and Lughnasadh (Autumn).