Molly McCully Brown, from Places I’ve Taken my Body: Essays

photography by Thinloth

springtime treasures 🌱🤍🌱

Death & Ostara

The Spring Equinox has an interesting relationship to the concept of life and death. Rebirth and new life is heavily associated with the holiday of Ostara due to it marking the first day of Spring and the longest day of the year. It is a day when light and dark are in perfect balance, and similarly life and death. 

You may not associate death with Ostara due to its emphasis on birth and new beginnings. Slavic pagan traditions believed that death had no power on the day of the Spring Equinox. 

However, this day itself still represents death. The death of winter. I think this highlights the importance of death as a source of change and renewal. Death does not always have to be seen negatively as it is the source of new life. The bodies of fallen creatures bring richness to the soil for future life to be grown. 

I do not think Ostara should be limited to celebrating that which is currently living. I think we can look back on those who have passed and celebrate their lives. Samhain does not have to be the only holiday where we reach out to our ancestors. 

🌼 Spring Magic 🌼

🌼 Blessed Spring witches! 🌼 I hope this season is treating you well so far. I’m sorry I haven’t posted a lot recently, life has taken a turn and I suddenly ran out of time to do anything witchy… I’m hoping spring will bring in some new energy and help me get out of these difficult times. 

Here’s a list of what I’ve been doing to feel more like myself, and appreciate the season of fresh starts and new beginnings. 

–

🌼 Nature: 

🌼 Cleanse:

🌼 Self care: 

🌼 Colours: 

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YULE - “ Mari Lwyd ”

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Paganism 101: Dumb Suppers

With Samhain around the corner (click here for a post about Samhain), you may see the term “dumb supper” crop up in posts surrounding traditions and activities done at this time of heightened liminality (click here for a post about liminality).

What is a dumb supper?

In layman’s terms, a dumb supper is a meal that is held in silence with food reserved for invited spirits. This ceremony is mean to be a time of remembrance and connection to those you have lost. That’s the simplest version of it.

The term “dumb” simply refers to the silence that is observed during the meal, as no one shall speak, no phones shall ring and no external noises such as radios, televisions should be able to be heard. Essentially, a dumb supper should be done in total, utter silence.

How do you do a dumb supper?

There is no staunch set of rules for this, aside from the silence. A basic template to follow if you’re unsure or doing this for the first time, may be as follows:

Food, drink and menu choices:

The food you serve at your dumb supper is entirely up to you. You may want to incorporate some of the traditional Samhain foods, e.g., apples, game, cider, late Autumn vegetables, etc,. but remember that you may want to serve food that pleases the spirits you invite too.

What do you do at the end of the supper?

This depends on you and your traditions.

If you’ve cast a circle, you will want to remove it and cleanse the area. When it comes to the food, there are a few things you can do to dispose of the food.

Bull moose skull in Alaska taken by: Beck Photography 

may your soul be overgrown with moss. may your veins fill with rainwater and your lungs swell with flowers.

is this a curse or blessing?? either way lay it on me boys

gimme the peat, boys, and free my soul

i wanna get lost in a mossy knoll

and dri f t  a  w   a    y   .   .     .

Assert dominance over ghosts by jumping out at yourself from dark corners

Why wait for a poltergeist to cause a ruckus? Slam your own doors. Rattle your own windows. Smash your own favourite plate against the wall. Haunt your own house. You don’t need no weakass spirit. The only supernatural force you need in your life is yourself.

this is so inspiring i’m crying thank you

The poltergeist:

Poltergeist: smashes plate on floor

Me: *swipes entire stack of plate off the shelf like a cat*

Poltergeist: okay mate alright take it easy jeez

Ghost in my home: *ungodly shrieking sound*

Me: *hits an operatic high G and leaves the room*

Ghost:

Because it’s that time of year, here’s a reminder that Samhain is pronounced Saow-in. Because it is an irish word, not an english one and irish is in fact a completely different language with it’s own way of pronouncing things like french or spanish or chinese or swahili or literally any other language in the world. 

Complaining that irish words don’t follow english pronunciation rules just makes you come across as an idiot who’s never come across the idea of more than one language existing. Also like a pompous coloniser.

Also fun fact: samhain is the irish word for november.

Halloween is Oíche Shamhna. (Ee-ha How-na) aka the eve/night before the start of winter.