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The hours of light have diminished; the days are short. The harvest has been gathered in, leaves fall from the trees and animals ready themselves for hibernation. The powers of growth and light are in decline, seemingly ready to fall into their long winter sleep. The powers of darkness and cold begin to gain ascendancy.
The leaves are starting to change colour now- on the horse chestnut they are shaded with orange, the maples turn yellow, the guelder becomes crimson, the cherry red, the sycamores purple, and the beeches blaze with copper; the God of summer goes out in a blaze of glory. The first frost will bring them all tumbling down, leaving the trees bare for winter.
Flowers are scarcer every day though all the nettles are still in flower, dog violets and milkwort in the woods. The motherwort continues to bloom and is used for curing heartburn, and chamomile, which should be collected for tea. Now is the time I gather crab apples for jelly and rose hips and haws for syrup and wine. After the first frost I will pick my sloes for sloe gin. This month I collect all the seeds I can from the garden, to ensure a good supply for planting next year. Some are edible, like poppy, nigella, sunflower and pumpkin. Harvest what remains of apples, pears and other fruit and move frost tender plants into the greenhouse or conservatory.
The young birds and animals are nearly grown now and seagulls arrive inland for the winter. Wasps have left their nests, but a few are still about, feeding on the last flowers of the season, the ivy flowers. Look around and you will find the chrysalises of moths and butterflies, and spiders coming indoors. Not many birds sing now, except the robin and the wren who were once said to be husband and wife, ruling the waning and waxing year. Other singers include the missell thrush and the song thrush. The cries of the owls are heard at night before they fall silent at the end of November. The song thrushes and skylarks are also vocal now, while house martins and swallows leave for warmer climes. Winter visitors like the waxwing arrive. Rooks are seen circling and flying in the rough autumn winds.
Insects are getting sleepy with the cold. Many creatures begin their winter hibernation including bats, dormice hibernate, hedgehogs, earwig, ladybird, drone fly, burnet moth, garden tiger moth, herald moth, wasp queen. In the water, however, from late November the female salmon lays eggs and dies soon after. Trout are also spawning and seal pups are born at this time of year. The red deer is in rut.
By Samhain we have had the first winter frosts and tender plants have been damaged or killed. The fresh salad season is over, but root vegetables are still viable in the ground. The falling of the leaves and the gathering of the cold is a token of the winter to come. The year seems to be dying, going into its long, chilly sleep.
Ritual foods for Samhain include the elder, apples, parsley, sloes, pumpkin, hops, juniper and rowan.
The apple is a symbol associated with the Goddess in many of her aspects. When cut in half cross ways it shows a five pointed star in the centre, the pentacle, emblem of immortality. Five is a number sacred to the Goddess, the number of stations in her year; birth, initiation, consummation, repose and death. The apple tree may also be seen as having five stations in the year; the blossom in spring, ripe fruit at Lughnasa, as a symbol of the setting sun in the west at the point of the autumn equinox, at Samhain the journey through the underworld, contact with the other worlds, divination and intuition, and the bare tree being wassailed at midwinter, the time of the sun's rebirth and the promise of the waxing year to come. Apples and cider are used at Samhain in place of the cakes and wine. A libation of cider is made before the closing of the circle. Leave a couple of apples on the ground to keep wandering spirits happy.
Sloes, the wild fruits of the blackthorn [Prunus spinosa] should be gathered after a good frost. In ogham blackthorn is Straif, meaning ‘strife’, called ‘the keeper of secrets’. The dense wood of the tree makes formidable war clubs and staffs. On the other hand it can be beneficial, hung up in the apple trees to invoke blessings. The use of sloe wine at Samhain echoes the paradoxical theme of strife, death and fertility.
Closely associated with Halloween is the hollowed out pumpkin or turnip, carved with a frightening face and lit with a candle inside. It is intended to frighten away the spirits which roam the land at this magical time.
ALTAR DECORATIONS
The altar is decorated with orange and black candles, hollowed out pumpkins and turnips, lit with candles, autumn leaves, late apples and sloes.
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