Tonight I wanted to share with you some of the more interesting facts, trivia and tidbits to be found this time of the year. All around us is abundance! A time for harvesting and cleaning up from summer, putting away for winter and preparing for a long winter's nap, as it were.
There are many items available during the harvest season that can be used magickally. For instance:
Pumpkins have the magickal properties of fertility and contacting the spirit world. Be sure to have a few on the table if doing divination or oracle work this harvest season.
Gourds have protection and banishing properties and are thought to keep evil and harm from the home.
Corn has the properties of protection, luck and divination.
Apples - love, healing, immortality , garden magic.
Sunflower is used this time of the year by some to represent the solar disc or sun. Sunflowers can bring fertility and wisdom.
The Horn of Plenty has been a symbol of the harvest for centuries and were originally made from large curved animal horns and today are made from wicker basket material. They symbolize abundance and nourishment and never wanting, a feast of food stuffs that never ends which will provide your family with sustenance, nourishment and grow your children strong. Ancient cultures placed extreme emphasis on survival, so the strongest and heartiest was the healthiest and usually lived the longest and best lives. In ancient cultures malnourishment was the root cause of a myriad of illnesses and diseases we are not familiar with today.
Wheat or Sheaves of grain are also a common symbol in the fall symbolizing the recent harvest. The straw or hay, usually wheat has been used magickally through the ages to bring fertility and prosperity.
Autumnal Baked Apples
This is a simple, fast dessert that everyone will love. Gather ingredients:
4 Large round apples of the season, such as Macouns, Macintosh or other apples suitable for baking.
Honey
granola or chopped nuts
cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg
Core apples, but leave peels on!!, and place in a glass baking dish. Perferrably a small enough dish so that the apples touch the sides of the baking dish and each other. Snug and comfy!
Drizzle generous amounts of honey over each apple, appx 1/4 cup will do for each.
sprinkle with granola or chopped nuts or both!
sprinkle with a teaspoon of cinnamon and just pinches of the nutmeg and allspice.
Place cover on baking dish if you have one, or cover with aluminum foil
Bake at 350 degree for appx 20 - 40 minutes (depending on the hardness of the apples)
Baked apples are done when a skewer can be easily pierced through apple. Remove from oven, allow to cool slightly and serve with whipped cream or heavy cream scented with vanilla. Ummmmmmm, delicious and a personal favorite of mine, especially this time of year. This is also a lovely recipe to do with pears.
Colors have long been associated with Autumn, perhaps more so than any other season except maybe for Yuletide (Christmas). The autumnal colors have strong meanings such as:
- Red stands for passion, strength, courage, energy, endurance and love
- Orange stands for matters pertaining to law, change, success and business matters
- Yellow stands for mental powers, intellect, truth and mental clarity and focus.
- Brown stands for animal magicks, grounding & centering and aspects of home life & domesticity.
- Russet or Maroon can help with centering & balancing the spirit and divination. These colors are similar to black and dark blue which allows one easier access to ancestors on the spirit plane.
The Cauldron
The cauldron makes a yearly appearance this time of year and today is mostly associated with Halloween and the witch who might be stirring the cauldron. But do you know the real story of the cauldron? Cauldrons have been considered magickal by, it seems, all ancient cultures from the Celts to the Asians and can be found in every culture's history and mythology. Firstly because its a large implement with which to make and feed food stuffs to people. It is an instrument of survival as early humans lived communally and foods were prepared in a central place and doled out to everyone. In otherwords, in tribal life rather than each family making their own food, the food would be made for the tribe and dished out to others. This method allows one to better stretch meger food supplies and ensuring everyone received some food.
The cauldron was the centerpiece in this type of communal cooking and living. The ancient Celts revered a cauldron called The cauldron of Cerridwen. It was thought to be a cauldron that gave inspiration, creativity, transformation and a magickal vessel. What was put in is forever transformed and became anew.
The ancient Welsh had a text of fables or myths called the Mabinogion. In one part of of the Mabinogion " The Goddess Cerridwen brews up a special magickal potion in her cauldron to give to her son Afagddu (Morfran). She puts young Gwion in charge of guarding the cauldron, but three drops of the brew fall upon his finger, blessing him with the knowledge held within. Cerridwen pursues Gwion through a cycle of seasons as all sorts of animals until, in the form of a hen, she swallows Gwion, who was disguised as an ear of corn. Nine months later, she gives birth to Taliesen, the greatest of all the Welsh poets".
Peace and Happiness
© 2010-2011 Enchantments, LLC Portions of this blog posting may include materials from my book “Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts First Year Magickal Studies.” For more information, see www.enchantmentsschool.com or go to the title of tonight's discussion and click, it will link you to my school's website.
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