Just a few updates on the site. First, I just wish to take a moment to welcome all our new members to our community. As our family continues to grow, I ask that all members to please take the time to welcome our newest additions.
~~ October is breast cancer awareness month. Ladies, if you haven’t gotten your mammogram please schedule one today! And of course I can’t leave out the men….it has been proven that men can be diagnosed with breast cancer as much as a woman can, so the next time you are at the Doctor, please don’t be afraid to discuss it with them.
~~ New Groups!
~~ We’ve had a few changes with the tabs at the top of your page. The tabs are now in this order….
Please remember that we DO NOT allow promoting of products or services on your profile pages. If you wish to promote your business, please contact us with your information and we will be glad to add it to the directory.
~~ Ning has removed gadgets from all networks and in it’s place ning provided us with OpenSocial.
~~ We would love to bring you more new items and go premium with ning so we can advertise on our own, but the creators are flat broke. You can help us by chipping in whatever you can, if you can. Please don’t worry if you can’t, believe me we do understand. To help out…at the bottom of the page you will find the Chip-In widget, just click on that and away you go.
~~ We are growing on Myspace! Come and add yourself as a friend if you haven’t already, we would love to see you there!
~~ New Groups!
- The BOS Swap …. Love to craft? We thought this would be a neat way to exchange BOS pages on any subject that you want to make a page from. The idea is to sign up under the thread October 1st opting in and you'll receive a partner in which to send out a BOS page for them and you will receive one in return. Look under group guidelines for more information. You can get as creative as you want, It doesn't have to be handwritten as you can always use your trusty computer to crank one out then all you need to do is find embellishments for the page to personalize it. All this info and some ideas are listed in the groups so sign up now! So come on everyone and have a little fun!
- The Celtic Knot … Discussions on the Celtic tradition. Come on over and join us!
- Musical Enchantment …Music To Soothe the Savage Beast! Come join us, and add your favorite music.
- Lightworkers Unite …A place for lightworkers to go and share or exchange information and for anyone interested in the subject. All are welcome!
- Runes Study Group …Want to learn the Runes? Do you know about Runes? Here we will study all aspects of the Runes. Come, Share & Join Us!!
- The Vampire's Vault …A place for Vampires/Pagan Vampires to exchange information and make friends.
~~ We’ve had a few changes with the tabs at the top of your page. The tabs are now in this order….
- My page is now My Abode
- Members is now Our Family
- Forums is now Expressions
- Groups is now Circles
- Notes is now Memos
- Where are your Wares is now MG Wares
- And a new tab - MG Top Sites
- Under the Main tab you will find…Photos, Videos, Events, MG Myspace, MG Newsletter
- Under the My Abode tab you will find…My Blog, All Blogs, My Friends, My Profile, My Settings, My Networks
- Under the MG Wares tab you will find…MG Directory, MG Boutique (more on that next month)
- Under the MG Top Sites tab you will find our voting link.
Please remember that we DO NOT allow promoting of products or services on your profile pages. If you wish to promote your business, please contact us with your information and we will be glad to add it to the directory.
~~ Ning has removed gadgets from all networks and in it’s place ning provided us with OpenSocial.
~~ We would love to bring you more new items and go premium with ning so we can advertise on our own, but the creators are flat broke. You can help us by chipping in whatever you can, if you can. Please don’t worry if you can’t, believe me we do understand. To help out…at the bottom of the page you will find the Chip-In widget, just click on that and away you go.
~~ We are growing on Myspace! Come and add yourself as a friend if you haven’t already, we would love to see you there!
Each month the administration will award one member the title of Member of the Month. This award is based on participation, contributions and helpfulness to the site and members.
Please remember to stop by the page of October’s Member of the Month, Ander "Scott" Drake and congratulate him if you haven’t done so already.
Please remember to stop by the page of October’s Member of the Month, Ander "Scott" Drake and congratulate him if you haven’t done so already.
The Birthday Club- A club for everyone to list their birthday, if you haven‘t already joined the group, please stop by and join us. We would love to wish you a “Happy Birthday”.
October birthdays that are listed in the group are
October birthdays that are listed in the group are
Dread the Knight - October 19
Herminia Haydes Suarez - October 25
Herminia Haydes Suarez - October 25
A Note from Christine
The History Of Samhain
Samhain's History
Samhain (pronounced Sow-en), dates back to the ancient Celts who lived 2,000 years ago. Contrary to what some believe, is not a celebration of a Celtic god of the dead. Instead, it is a Celtic word meaning "summer's end." The Celts, like many other cultures, saw the dark of the day or year as the beginning and not the end of the seasonal cycle. Thus their days began at sunset, not sun rise and the wheel of the year begins at summers end; Samhain. The Celts were a pastoral people as opposed to an agricultural people. The end of summer was significant to them because it meant the time of year when the structure of their lives changed radically. The cattle were brought down from the summer pastures in the hills and the people were gathered into the houses for the long winter nights of story-telling and handicrafts.
Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. Fires were lit to honor the descending sun god. On the eve of Samhain, the gates of the Abyss were unlocked and spirits from below flew free. Human souls that had been trapped in the bodies of animals were released by the Lord of the Dead and sent to their new incarnations.
In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.
To commemorate the event, early Celts built massive bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. These sacred fires were a big part of the cleansing of the old year and a method to prepare for the coming new year. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit the fires in their homes with torches from the sacred bonfire. These home fires were to help protect them during the coming winter.
The Romans began to conquer the Celtic territories. By A.D. 43 they had succeeded in claiming the majority of the Celtic lands. They ruled for approximately four hundred years combining or influencing many Celtic traditional celebrations with their own. Two Roman holidays were merged with Samhain.
1. Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead.
2. Pomona's Day of Honoring, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.
Samhain to Halloween
With the coming of Christianity in the 800s AD, the early Church in England tried to Christianize the old Celtic festivals. Pope Boniface IV designated the 1st of November as "All Saints Day," honoring saints and martyrs. He also decreed October 31 as "All Hallows Eve" and eventually Hallow'een. Scholars today widely accept that the Pope was attempting to replace the earlier Celtic pagan festival with a church-sanctioned holiday. As this Christian holiday spread, the name evolved as well. Also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day). 200 years later, in 1000 AD, the church made November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It is celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls' day, are called Hallowmas.
Halloween Traditions
"Trick-or-treating" is a modern American tradition that probably finds it's roots in the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.
"Dressing up" for Halloween gets it roots from dressing up around the sacred bonfire during the original Celtic festival. Some suggest, this practice originates from England, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world on Halloween. People thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes, so to avoid being recognized people would wear masks after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. In addition, these early English people, would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter or cause harm to their homes.
As European came to America, they brought their varied Halloween traditions with them. Celebration of Halloween in colonial times was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups, as well as the American Indians, meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, America entered an age of mysticism. What was more often termed spiritualism. Metaphysical groups and clubs began to spring up throughout the Golden Age and the wealthier set of Americans. At the same time, America was welcoming a new group of immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846. This new cultural influence brought with it a melding of Irish and English traditions, and a new Americans culture was born. People began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors.
In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything "frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations. Because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.
By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated.
Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday.
Samhain Traditions
To pagans the world over, November 1st, still marks the beginning of the New Year. To Witches and Pagans, Samhain is the Festival of the Dead, and for many, it is the most important Sabbat (Holiday) of the year. Although the Feast of the Dead forms a major part of most Pagan celebrations on this eve, and at Samhain voluntary communications are expected and hoped for. The departed are never harassed, and their presence is never commanded. The spirits of the dead are, however, ritually invited to attend the Sabbat and to be present within the Circle.
The colors of this Sabbat are black and orange. Black to represent the time of darkness after the death of the God (who is represented by fire and the sun) during an earlier sabbat, and the waning of light during the day. Orange represents the awaiting of the dawn during Yule (Dec. 21st to Jan. 1st) when the God is reborn.
Jack-o-lanterns originated from the custom of lighting candles for the dead to follow as they walk the earth. Treats also originated from an old custom of leaving cookies and other foods out for those relatives to enjoy as they shared this one night of feasting. The 'trick' portion of "Trick or Treat" was an invention of the Christians. The tricks were supposedly caused by the dead who didn't receive a treat of food left for them when they arrived.
Some ideas for a Samhain Celebration:
* Bob for apples. There were many divination practices associated with Samhain, many of which dealt with marriage, health, and the weather. Ducking for apples was a marriage divination based on the belief that the first to bite into an apple would be the first to marry in the coming year. This is similar to the wedding tradition of the throwing of the bride's bouquet for women and her garter for men.
* Apple peeling was another type of divination to determine how long one's life would be. The longer the unbroken peel, the longer the life of the one peeling it the rind
* Carve jack-o-lanterns to light the way for the spirits who walk during this night.
* Finish any incomplete projects and pay off lingering bills (if possible) to close out the old year and begin the new year afresh.
* Set aside some time for scrying or other form of divination. Or if you don't divine yourself, get a reading.
* Leave food out for the birds and other wild animals.
* Put pictures of ancestors who have passed on your altar or festival table. Light a special candle for them, to show them the way to return and celebrate with you.
* Visit the graves of your ancestors or, if this isn't possible, the nearest cemetery. Be still there, and listen for the voices of those who have passed.
* Leave offerings of food and drink for them, and for the animals.
* Tell ancestral stories and tales around the fire, or at the dinner table.
* Have a mask-making ceremony in which you create masks to represent your ancestry.
A Note From Skye
Salt Crystal Lamps & Candles
Salt crystal lamps and candles improve air qualities by enriching air with negative ions, and they are natural air ionizers.
Many of us live and work in surroundings dominated by technology; computers, televisions, copy machines, printers, microwave ovens, air conditioners and heaters, just to name a few. These so called "conveniences" emit an excessive amounts of positive ions into the air we breath, which can result in mental and physical exhaustion and effect overall wellness. The most dangerous levels of positive ions occur in polluted cities. Exhaust fumes from cars, trucks, and buses; factory smoke, cigarette smoke, dust and soot, and electromagnetic pollution all combines to create a potent mixture of positive ions and ozone that gradually destroys our lungs and ruins our health.
Perhaps you have noticed that your feeling of well being is intensified in pure mountain air, or at the seashore, or after a thunderstorm. This is due to the higher concentration of negative ions in these surroundings. It is no coincidence that healing spas are, as a rule, located in areas with foaming salt water or roaring mountain springs which generate plentiful negative ions which causes air particles to achieve electrical or ionic balance.
Salt crystal lamps are highly suitable for daily use in the whole house - in bed rooms, in living rooms, in dining rooms, in the hall way, in meditation rooms, near televisions, computers and around smokers. Use these beautiful lamps in offices to reduce fatigue, the lamp will minimize the effect of all that radiation and beautifies surroundings of your work area, it improves your concentration and refreshes you by neutralizing the effects of an artificial environment. Use the lamp in waiting rooms to create a relaxing atmosphere, during massage therapy, and anywhere else you want to restore or maintain the natural air quality. The benefit of ionizers is well known. While most ionizers on the market are man made machines, the salt crystal lamp is a beautiful alternative of mother nature, without any noise and no harmful ozone.
Europeans have been aware of the health benefits of salt for generations, and people suffering from chronic congestive problems go to clinics located in salt mines for treatment. It is called SPELEOTHERAPY. The very dry, negative ion-rich environment of these salt mines helps to clear out the patients’ bronchial tubes and sinuses, and to kill bacteria and other microbes.
Salt crystal lamps and candles improve air qualities by enriching air with negative ions, and they are natural air ionizers.
Many of us live and work in surroundings dominated by technology; computers, televisions, copy machines, printers, microwave ovens, air conditioners and heaters, just to name a few. These so called "conveniences" emit an excessive amounts of positive ions into the air we breath, which can result in mental and physical exhaustion and effect overall wellness. The most dangerous levels of positive ions occur in polluted cities. Exhaust fumes from cars, trucks, and buses; factory smoke, cigarette smoke, dust and soot, and electromagnetic pollution all combines to create a potent mixture of positive ions and ozone that gradually destroys our lungs and ruins our health.
Perhaps you have noticed that your feeling of well being is intensified in pure mountain air, or at the seashore, or after a thunderstorm. This is due to the higher concentration of negative ions in these surroundings. It is no coincidence that healing spas are, as a rule, located in areas with foaming salt water or roaring mountain springs which generate plentiful negative ions which causes air particles to achieve electrical or ionic balance.
Salt crystal lamps are highly suitable for daily use in the whole house - in bed rooms, in living rooms, in dining rooms, in the hall way, in meditation rooms, near televisions, computers and around smokers. Use these beautiful lamps in offices to reduce fatigue, the lamp will minimize the effect of all that radiation and beautifies surroundings of your work area, it improves your concentration and refreshes you by neutralizing the effects of an artificial environment. Use the lamp in waiting rooms to create a relaxing atmosphere, during massage therapy, and anywhere else you want to restore or maintain the natural air quality. The benefit of ionizers is well known. While most ionizers on the market are man made machines, the salt crystal lamp is a beautiful alternative of mother nature, without any noise and no harmful ozone.
Europeans have been aware of the health benefits of salt for generations, and people suffering from chronic congestive problems go to clinics located in salt mines for treatment. It is called SPELEOTHERAPY. The very dry, negative ion-rich environment of these salt mines helps to clear out the patients’ bronchial tubes and sinuses, and to kill bacteria and other microbes.
We can’t keep an eye on everything that goes on within the site, so if you have any problems or feel you were spammed by a member please use the “Report an Issue” link at the bottom of every page or contact us at….
And we will get back to you as soon as we can. We want everyone to feel safe and at home here with us at Magickal Gatherings.
Until next month…..
And we will get back to you as soon as we can. We want everyone to feel safe and at home here with us at Magickal Gatherings.
Until next month…..
Gentle Rains & Christine (co-creators)
Skye (group administrator)
Skye (group administrator)
