Transcript
Speaker: Do you feel drawn to learn more about witchcraft and the occult but feel lost on where to start? then welcome to Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft, a podcast all about what it means to be a witch and where to get started on your journey.
Speaker: Join us as we navigate through various witchy topics and share what we've learned about the craft. So get in, witches, for part seven of our altar series, this time focusing on Samhain altars.
Speaker: We saw a movie when I came back from Oregon. this This movie would probably be like streaming by the time this is released. Bye, Tom. Mike really wanted to go see that new movie that came out that was called The End of Oak Street or something like that. Have you seen any previews for it? No.
Speaker: It is like, ah the premise of it is, it's set, I think, in the early 80s. The end of the street. is picked up and basically moved to like prehistoric, like dinosaur time. Okay. And it was actually pretty good.
Speaker: like i don't want to give away any spoilers yeah because there were some things that happened where we were both like at the end we had to talk about it because we were like what the fuck It was a pretty good movie. We took the girls to see it.
Speaker: and so but it was still like there were some parts of it where i was just like looking over because Not that it was scary, but if I was a kid, I'd be like, ah! Yeah, yeah. so But it was a pretty cute movie.
Speaker: We haven't watched any movies. We've just been re -watching True Blood. But... I have been reading nothing but spooky books lately. I've really just been on my Like I'm living in my spooky era, I guess. Yeah. which So I'm reading Stephen King's In Publication Order.
Speaker: Which, you know. He started off horror where some of his newer books are more like fantasy or sci -fi, but. So I'm reading all of those and then. I read this book. Have you read Boys in the Valley?
Speaker: No. I can't remember who the author is. I'll have to look that up. But it was essentially It's orphaned children that were taken in.
Speaker: by a church, and they're raised by these priests, like Catholic priests. And the main character and the main. not the head father but the main father that like we get glimpses of mostly.
Speaker: And he's like super normal and really nice. Um, they have this, like he kind of raised him. So he became like the father figure for this boy whose parents. died. And one night at the orphanage, the sheriff brings in this man. who apparently you learn it's his brother and something is fucking off. And then the sheriff tells them like, why he was being arrested. And it was like, part of some satanic ritual where they had killed a little girl and they were eating her and like all of this stuff. And so when they kill him.
Speaker: it's a demon oh the demon is then released within the orphanage yeah and some of the boys were susceptible to it and there's a lot of horrible things that happen And I got to the end and I'm like, oh, we're getting to this happy ending. No. This does not have a happy ending. i like It finished and I was like. What the f - Fuck.
Speaker: you know usually like even in a horror story like fucked up shit happens and then you get to the end and like you've got these survivors and they made it against all odds Now.
Speaker: No. no there's not nothing is happy it if you want a really good fucking spooky book and you're okay with like some people can't read demonic possession which i learned when i was telling someone else about it they were like i can't fucking read that that shit scares me and i'm like okay well it's great anyway they yeah if you're okay with reading about demonic possession um it's it's really good it's
Speaker: I felt like it was also very... realistic like if that were to happen in the situation that it happened the way that it played out and the way that certain certain children were more susceptible to it, I guess.
Speaker: it made a lot of sense It was really good. It was very well done. Nice. I'll have to yeah give it a listen or read it. Yeah. I'll have to look up the author for you. I cannot remember for the life of me who it was, but the book was called Boys in the Valley. And it's because the orphanage is in a valley. yeah Makes sense. Yeah. yeah but we're not talking about books and movies which i feel like we do so much in our banter We definitely do a lot of that. but that's That's not at all what we're talking about right now.
Speaker: What are we talking about today? We are talking about salmon alters. So to kick us off. Samhain occurs on October 31st through November 1st in the Northern Hemisphere and April 30th to May 1st in the Southern Hemisphere. And for a full Samhain episode.
Speaker: go back and listen to both episode 35 and 133. We have covered it twice in different ways. so You're welcome. So let's talk a little bit about why Samhain matters. Samhain marks the threshold. So in many modern pagan traditions, Samhain is understood as a liminal time. The old season is ending, the darkness is deepening, and we stand at the boundary between what has been and what is yet to come.
Speaker: It's a moment to pause, acknowledge the turning of the wheel, and recognize that endings are part of every cycle.
Speaker: It can also bring us into a relationship with the dead. So Samhain is strongly associated in contemporary witchcraft with honoring ancestors and remembering those who have crossed the veil. It can be a time for offerings, ancestor altars, storytelling, divination, or simply making space to remember the people and beings whose lives shaped our own.
Speaker: It also asks us to confront death and transformation. Samhain isn't necessarily about celebrating death as something frightening or morbid. It can be an invitation to sit with mortality, release what has run its course, and recognize death as one part of the larger cycle of nature.
Speaker: birth, growth, decay, death, and renewal. And that's why Samhain matters. So it gives us permission to step into the dark rather than immediately trying to escape it. The darkness becomes a place for reflection, magic, divination, grief, remembrance, and transformation. It's a place where we can ask what we're ready to let go of be before we begin the next turn of the wheel.
Speaker: Yeah, so looking at a brief history of Samhain.
Speaker: Samhain is an ancient Gaelic festival whose name is most often understood to mean summer's end. In pre -Christian Ireland, this Sabbath marked the end of the pastoral year and the beginning of the next, which marked this time as an important seasonal and agricultural transition. While the exact origins of Samhain are difficult to pinpoint, what we do know is that archaeological evidence shows that the Celtic communities elsewhere in Europe also celebrated or observed a similar end of summer period. And there was also a 2nd century
Speaker: CE Gaulish calendar called the Kolinyi calendar, and it includes in it the month of Semenoir, which may also share the same linguistic roots as Samhain.
Speaker: In Ireland and other Celtic regions, Samhain became one of the major seasonal festivals. Medieval Irish literature preserves stories and legends that take place during Samhain, including the Second Battle of Mag Twirid, the Adventures of Nira, and the stories of Finn McCool. These stories show just how deeply ingrained sound was into Irish culture.
Speaker: Fire was also an important part of traditional celebrations and like we see in a lot of ancient Sabbath celebrations. Communal bonfires would be lit and people carried flames from these fires back to their homes to relight their household hearths. The festival was also associated with supernatural beings and the other world and the return of the dead or increased activity of not just the dead, but also fairies became an important part of historical observations as well.
Speaker: People sometimes disguised themselves to avoid harmful spirits, and offerings were left for supernatural beings and deceased loved ones. As Christianity spread through Ireland and other Celtic areas, Samhain was gradually incorporated into Christian celebrations and the Christian calendar. November 1st became All Saints Day, and November 2nd became All Souls Day.
Speaker: October 31st became All Hallows' Eve, which over time became shortened to Halloween. Many of the customs associated with Halloween as we know it today have connections to older Celtic and medieval practices.
Speaker: So let's look at some of the core themes. The first one being death. So death is probably the most obvious and most misunderstood theme of Samhain. In the modern pagan imagination, Samhain is often described as a festival of death, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we're celebrating death itself. We're acknowledging it, we're giving it a place, and we're recognizing that death is woven into the natural world and into our own lives.
Speaker: At Samhain, the dying landscape becomes part of the ritual language. So the harvest has been gathered, the leaves are falling, plants are retreating into the earth, and the days are becoming shorter. So nature gives us this incredibly tangible reminder that nothing remains in one state forever. What flourished in the light now begins its journey into the darkness. And this can make Samhain a powerful time to contemplate our own mortality. So remembering that our time is finite and it can make us more conscious of how we're spending it. What matters to us? Who do we love? What do we want to leave behind? What do we need to say while we still have that ah opportunity to say it?
Speaker: Death also creates a space for remembrance. For many that are part of this community, Samhain is a time to honor the beloved dead and acknowledge our ancestors. We might put photographs on an altar, light a candle, prepare an offering, speak their names, or simply tell stories about them. There's something profoundly magical about saying you're still remembered, you're still part of this story. And there's an important distinction here too between honoring the dead and romanticizing death. Samhain doesn't require us to make death beautiful or pretend that grief doesn't hurt. we can acknowledge that death can be frightening. It can be painful and devastating while still recognizing that it is an inevitable part of our existence. The lesson isn't don't fear death, but rather something subtler, like make peace with the fact that death exists. Sit with it and allow the darkness to remind you that death is part of the cycle rather than something outside of it. The next theme around Samhain is ancestors. Samhain has become strongly associated with ancestors and the dead, particularly in modern practice. Medieval Irish literature also connects Samhain with encounters between the human world and the other world, giving modern practitioners a historical and mythological foundation for ancestor -focused observations during the Sabbath. In the second battle of Mag Twirid that I mentioned earlier, Samhain serves as a significant supernatural setting, reinforcing its association with encounters between worlds.
Speaker: So next we have transformation because if Samhain is about death or has ties to death, it's also about what happens because of death.
Speaker: So in nature, decomposition isn't simply an ending. The falling leaf becomes nourishment and seeds disappear beneath the soil. What looks like an ending can become a beginning of something that we can't yet see. So this is one of the reasons Samhain can be such a powerful season for letting go. We can look into the things that we've been carrying like old habits, relationships, identities, beliefs, fears, patterns, and then ask ourselves, does this still belong in the next version of my life? And letting go doesn't always mean dramatically cutting something out of our lives either. Sometimes transformation is quieter. It's accepting that we've changed. It's allowing an old version of our ourselves to die without treating that death as a failure. Witchcraft is full of transformation, things like herbs becoming incense, wax becoming candles, intention becoming ritual, one state of being becoming another. Samhain gives us a seasonal framework for doing that same work internally.
Speaker: This is also where the symbolism of the veil becomes particularly interesting. So whether someone understands the veil literally, spiritually, psychologically, or even just symbolically, Samhain represents a time when the boundaries between states seem thinner. So life and death, past and present, known and unknown.
Speaker: who we were and who we are becoming. So rather than treating transformation as become a completely new person, Samhain offers a gentler question. What are you ready to release and what are you willing to make space for? Because sometimes transformation is about becoming something entirely different. Sometimes it's about returning to something essential that got buried underneath everything else. And that's where death and transformation ultimately meet. So something has to end for something else to have room to emerge. merge. Sauen invites us to stand in that in -between space to honor what's ending, grieve what needs grieving, release what needs releasing, and trust that darkness doesn't necessarily mean nothing is happening. Sometimes the most important transformation is happening where we can't see it yet.
Speaker: The last core theme of Samhain is divination. Historically, people used games and rituals involving things like apples, nuts, fires, and other household items to seek information about topics like marriage, fortune, and the coming year. Medieval Irish sources also contain stories connecting Samhain with supernatural knowledge and prophecy. see And today, modern practitioners have expanded on these ideas with practices like tarot, oracle cards, runes, and scrying, just to name a few.
Speaker: So next we're going to look at some deities and spirits that have some type of association with Samhain. The first one is going to be the Morrigan. So she is a powerful figure from Irish mythology, often associated with sovereignty, warfare, prophecy, fate, and death. She isn't simply a singular goddess of death, and the mythology surrounding her is pretty complex. She appears in different forms and alongside figures such as Val, Biv,
Speaker: or Bive, depending on the location, and then Maka. Her connection to Samhain comes partly through Irish mythology itself. Samhain appears as a significant supernatural and political threshold in the Irish literary tradition, and the Morrigan is strongly associated with this liminal time. In the Tan Boculnia, for example, she encounters the hero Cuchulainn around Samhain, and you've probably heard us tell this story because we have covered it before, in
Speaker: Modern times, though, the Morgan can embody the darker power of the season. Sovereignty! prophecy, confrontation with mortality, and the willingness to face what we'd rather avoid. Her presence fits beautifully with Samhain's themes of death, transformation, and crossing thresholds.
Speaker: Next is Cernunnos, and he is often depicted with antlers. and is associated as a deity of fertility in the harvest. He is associated with the balance of nature and the bounty of the earth. As the harvest season ends, Cernunnos symbolizes the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
Speaker: During Samhain, Cernunnos' role not only reflects the abundance of the harvest, but also the need to prepare that bounty for the winter months ahead.
Speaker: Next would be the Dagda, and this is one of the major deities in Irish mythology and a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He is often portrayed as a powerful father figure who is associated with abundance, fertility, magic, wisdom, and sovereignty. He is also mentioned in the second battle of Mag Tuirid, and Samhain is specifically mentioned in connection with the events of the story, which furthers his ties to Samhain as well.
Speaker: Next up is Un Kaliak. which is a powerful figure in Gaelic folklore, particularly associated with Scotland and Ireland, and her name can mean something like the veiled one or old woman. She appears in numerous local traditions and is associated with winter, mountains, storms, wild landscapes, and the harshness of the season. Her connection to Samhain is strongest through the seasonal transitions into winter. In folklore, the Kaliak is often understood as the personification or powerful embodiment of winter itself. As Samhain marks the movement from the harvest season into the darker half of the year, she becomes a compelling figure for that descent into cold, darkness, and dormancy. In modern practices, she can represent the wisdom and power of the crone. Rather than portraying old age as something to fear, the Kaliak can embody endurance, sovereignty, wildness, and the knowledge that comes from having lived through many cycles. She reminds us that the dark half of the year has its own power.
Speaker: Next is Hades and Persephone, and these deities can be approached together as a powerful representation of the underworld, death, transformation, and the cycles of descent and return. In Greek mythology, Hades rules the underworld with Persephone as his queen.
Speaker: Their mythology reflects the movement between the worlds of the living and the dead, relating back to themes of liminality and the changing seasons. They aren't historically Samhain deities, but their inclusion is a modern pagan association based on the themes within mythology itself.
Speaker: And then last we have Hel, who comes from Norse mythology and is the ruler of the realm ah by the same name, where many of the dead are said to reside. She's the daughter of Loki and the giantess Angraboda.
Speaker: She is described as having this striking half -living, half -dead appearance. Importantly, Hel's realm isn't simply equivalent to the Christian concept of Hel, but rather it's a destination for many of the dead who don't die in battle. Her connection to Samhain is modern rather than historical. Samhain is a Gaelic festival, so while Hel belongs to the Norse mythological tradition, there isn't really like an ancient historical tradition linking Hel specifically to Samhain.
Speaker: But modern pagans may connect her to the season because of Samhain's focus on death and the ancestors, the dead, and the boundary between worlds. As a Samhain figure, Hel offers an interesting perspective on death, not necessarily like evil punishment or something to be conquered, but a natural destination within a larger cosmic order. She can therefore complement Samhain's themes of accepting mortality,
Speaker: honoring the dead and recognizing that death is another stage in the cycle rather than simply an ending. So going into the correspondences. For colors, you have black, brown, gray, red, orange, yellow, and silver.
Speaker: For plants and herbs, you have allspice, angelica, cedar, chrysanthemums, hemlock, marigold, mugwort, Mullen Murr. patchouli. rosemary, sage, wormwood, and yarrow. For creatures and animals, we have banshees, bats, black cats, boars, frogs.
Speaker: owls, ravens, spiders, and wolves. And for magical workings, these can be done with ancestry, cord cutting, crossroads workings, divination, workings tied to beginning death. ending and rebirth.
Speaker: visions, working with the other realms, and releasing. I'm looking at symbols. This would include things like apples. Well, really basically everything Tiffany's already. said but So apples, autumn flowers, acorns, bats.
Speaker: black cats, bones, corn stalks, colored leaves, crows, death or dying, divination, and any tools associated with it. Ghosts, gourds, Indian corn, jack -o' -lanterns, nuts, oak leaves, pomegranates, pumpkins, scarecrows, scythes, and the waning moon. As far as tools go, this would be the besom, the cauldron. tarot itself, the obsidian ball, pendulums, runes.
Speaker: and Ouija boards. For incense and oils, this would include copal, sandalwood, mastic resin, benzoin, sweetgrass, wormwood, mugwort, sage, myrrh, and patchouli.
Speaker: The element associated with Samhain is water. And the crystals and gemstones associated with Samhain is black obsidian, jasper, carnelian, onyx, smoky quartz, jet, and bloodstone.
Speaker: and for food and drinks this would include cider apples, pork, hazelnuts, pomegranates. pumpkins, potatoes, squash. Cranberries, turtops, beets, and really any seasonal foods that are available during this time is a lot of what this is.
Speaker: mugwort tea, ale, mulled wines, pies, and cakes for the dead. And then for... altar types and setups the first one we have is the ancestor altar
Speaker: This type of altar creates a dedicated space for remembrance and connections with those who came before us at Samhain when honoring the dead is such a central theme. It can become a place to acknowledge our own ancestors, beloved dead, and the people whose lives helped to shape our own. You might include photographs, names written on paper, heirlooms, candles, or objects associated with a particular ancestor. Offerings can be as simple as a glass of water, a cup of tea, flowers, bread, or something that you know that they enjoyed in life.
Speaker: And ancestor doesn't have to mean only a blood relative. You can honor chosen family, adopted ancestors, spiritual ancestors, ancestors of a craft or tradition, or even people whose work profoundly influenced your life. The important thing is being intentional about who you're inviting into that space.
Speaker: The next one is the final harvest altar. This altar can focus on gratitude, abundance, and the closing of the harvest season. Samhain marks the point where the harvest has largely been gathered and the world begins turning towards winter, making this an altar for appreciating what we've received before acknowledging what is ending. So think autumnal abundance. pumpkins and squash, apples, nuts, grains, dried herbs, fallen leaves, berries, corn, candles, and harvest colors, and anything that you've grown, gathered, cooked, or preserved yourself.
Speaker: You can also make it personal by representing your own like quote unquote harvest. So add a journal entry about what you've accomplished over the year, maybe photographs of meaningful moments or small objects representing lessons, relationships, experiences or blessings that you're grateful for.
Speaker: The next is a veil or liminal altar. This altar can be centered on Samhain's association with thresholds and the space between worlds. So whether you're understanding the veil literally as a boundary between the living and the dead or symbolically as a time when we are especially receptive to the unseen, this altar creates a physical representation of that in -between space.
Speaker: So you could use a black or a dark colored cloth, mirrors, keys, doorways, or arch imagery, candles, bones, or ethically sourced natural remains and objects associated with twilight or transition.
Speaker: A bowl of water can also work beautifully as a reflective or scrying element. And this is also a great altar for working with the symbolism of like the quote unquote between. You might deliberately place objects in pairs like light and dark.
Speaker: living and dead, summer and winter, that can represent that transition between states rather than focusing exclusively on death. And the last one I have here is the Divination Altar. So Samhain has a long -standing association in modern pagan practice with divination and looking toward what lies beyond the known.
Speaker: A divination altar gives that practice a dedicated space and it allows us to approach readings with intention rather than treating them simply as fortune telling. You could build the altar around whatever method you use. whether that be tarot or oracle cards, runes. pendulums, scrying mirrors, a crystal ball.
Speaker: I had not heard of this one, but I came across it in my research. But the OM? which is a medieval alphabet that was used to write in early... Irish language that's used in divination apparently.
Speaker: Oh, I seen it spelled out before, but I didn't know what it was. I also... pronounced it very differently until I looked it up I was like if I'm gonna be saying that out loud let me look at how you pronounce that good but Should we tell them it's not Ogum? Nope. um Or even a simple bowl of water. Add candles, protective herbs, incense, or other objects that help.
Speaker: put you into the right ritual mindset. You can also combine divination with reflection rather than asking only what's going to happen. Questions like, what am I leaving behind? What am I carrying into the next cycle? What am I not seeing? These all fit perfectly well with the themes of Samhain and transformation. The next altar style is release and transformation. This altar style is centered on letting go.
Speaker: personal transformation, and moving from one phase of life to another. This ultra style at this time of year is a way to symbolically acknowledge what has run its course in your life. whether that be a habit, a relationship, fear, or any limiting beliefs that you hold onto, or even just an old version of yourself. This altar style is less about mourning what you're losing and more about intentionally creating space for what comes next. So set up ideas could look like a cauldron as a central focus for transformation.
Speaker: Fallen leaves to represent what is being released. A candle representing the new path you're creating. Written petitions or statements showing what you're releasing. And you could even do this by taking a marker and writing those on the fallen leaves. Dead flowers alongside seeds or bulbs to show transformation.
Speaker: stones such as smoky quartz or obsidian, and a candle progression of black to purple to white to show release, transformation, and renewal.
Speaker: The next altar style that I'm going to be talking about is the death and rebirth altar. This altar focuses on the larger cycle of life, death, decay, dormancy, and renewal. The imagery here can be intentionally stark, so think like bones, skulls, dried or dead flowers, fallen leaves, and other symbols of mortality alongside with seeds, fruit, or new growth if you have any plants that are growing any new leaves or something. Setup ideas could look like...
Speaker: any of the things I just mentioned, but also pomegranate specifically for its symbolism of the underworld and death. a cauldron to represent transformation, a black candle paired with a white candle. deity representations of Hades and Persephone, and even a snake shedding its skin or other transformational imagery. And this doesn't have to be stuff you go out and buy. This could be your own depiction, your own drawings or something that you've printed off online as well.
Speaker: Next is the hearth and protection altar. The core intention with this altar is to protect the home, preserve the light, and create a safe threshold. A hearth altar can represent the warmth and protection of the home as we move into the darker parts of the year, and this is also a great location to practice incorporating boundaries, grounding, protective sigil work, etc. during this time of year.
Speaker: Setup ideas can include things like a candle or lantern to act as a hearth fire, black or a deep red cloth for the altar cloth, salt as a protective boundary,
Speaker: iron objects or horseshoes, Protective herbs like rosemary and lavender. stones like black tourmaline, obsidian, and smoky quartz. any sort of protective symbols or sigils, depending on what that means to you.
Speaker: a besom or a broom to represent cleansing, a cauldron to represent the hearth, and a small bowl of water for purification. Lastly, the last altar style that I'm going to talk about is the Dumb Supper slash Feast altar.
Speaker: Tiffany did a deeper look at Dumb Suppers twice on the podcast. both back in episodes that we've already talked about, episode 133 and episode 35 specifically. So I will not be doing a deep dive on this topic.
Speaker: However, this is a different take on the idea of a dumb supper just in general and is probably one of the most emotionally evocative altar styles on our list. A dumb supper, for those who haven't listened to the episode, is a ritual meal conducted in silence with a place set for a deceased loved ones or ancestors. Modern pagan versions typically involve preparing a meal, setting an additional place at the table, and maintaining silence throughout the meal as a way of honoring and remembering the dead.
Speaker: So turning this into an altar, you could place a separate setting on your altar for the dead to include utensils a glass a plate napkin everything that you would use to set it at a table if you were doing a place setting. And then you would also want to include a candle on your altar. And then additionally, photographs of your ancestors or deceased loved ones. And then in this altar style, you would want to make their favorite meals or drinks for them.
Speaker: even family recipes that they made when they were living. You could even do what is seasonally available to you where you're living instead of actually making their favorite meal.
Speaker: include flowers or greenery a handwritten note and the idea here is that every time you cook for them while this altar style is set up, you place a setting for them on your altar as a way to honor them during this time of year. And I thought that was a really cute take on the dumb supper. upside is super cute and i will also put in a plug for rebecca who we've had on the podcast before and we have used her book in many of our episodes but um wild witchcraft she does have a chapter on how to do a dumb supper if that is something that you're interested in and i also talked about it in both of those episodes so again make sure you go back and listen to them if you haven't
Speaker: Because my explanation of what a dump supper is, I realize, is a very very concise to the point where there's so much more into it. yeah i didn't want to like go down this whole rabbit hole no because we've done it We've done it before. So lastly, to tie up the episode, we're just looking at some common misconceptions when it comes to Samhain.
Speaker: One of the biggest misconceptions about Samhain is that it was a Celtic or Druid festival dedicated to the god of death. There are also a lot of persistent claims that Samhain is a satanic holiday involving things like human sacrifice, devil worshipping, blood drinking, or ritual murder. Thank you so much, Halloween. We love that movie, but also you called it Samhain and you scared a lot of people. Thank you. None of this accurately represents the historical evidence.
Speaker: found surrounding Samhain. The festival itself was fundamentally a seasonal Gaelic festival, marking the end of the summer harvest and the beginning of winter. Another major misconception comes from the satanic panic in the 1960s through the 1980s when stories began circulating about Satanists kidnapping children, sacrificing animals, or even and poisoning Halloween candy. These stories became so deeply embedded into popular culture despite little to no evidence that supported the idea that any satanic groups carried out ritual Halloween crimes. And Halloween candy poisoning stories became a popular and enduring urban legend fueled by the media, and any stories out there of Halloween candy being tampered with do not involve paganism, satanism, or ritual sacrifice. Do you remember when we were kids?
Speaker: The news was always like. Check your kid's candy for razor blades. Yep. I still check their candy because, you know, sometimes it's like unwrapped and you just want to throw it away. But like, yeah, I remember like we'd have to dump everything out and we'd have to yeah check all the things. And as an adult who buys Halloween candy. Ain't nobody spending that much money on a bag of fucking Reese's cups.
Speaker: Put razors in it. No one's doing that. Well, and I can't remember. This might have been a spooky episode topic that we covered. Or it might have been one of this out one of these. silent episodes that we did where we talked about that where this all stemmed from, it was like a killing.
Speaker: like ah a dad did this to his own kids and then they turned this into this whole thing of like Oh, it was the Halloween candy, but it was really like the dad put like. poison in his kids.
Speaker: pixie sticks or something like that yeah I'd have to go back and and like look this up but I remember like reading it and I feel like we talked about it on the podcast before it sounds vaguely familiar so I'm sure we did but yeah I don't remember This is probably from season one. Yeah, probably.
Speaker: And then lastly, Samhain isn't Halloween and Halloween isn't Samhain. Halloween developed over time through a layering and merging of Gaelic and Celtic.
Speaker: seasonal traditions, and Christian observances. Modern pagan Samhain developed its own practices and around ancestors, reflection, divination, death, and transformation. And so if you are not pagan, you can 1000 % celebrate Halloween. If you are a pagan, you can celebrate Halloween. halloween And Zaoan. Like, that's not the same thing.
Speaker: Just because it happens like on a similar date doesn't necessarily mean it's the same thing. Facts on facts. On fax. There we go. Anyway, that is Sam and Alter. Cheers!
Speaker: That's a wrap on this episode of Get In Loser We're Doing Witchcraft. We hope you had as much fun as we did. If you love this episode, we'd be eternally grateful if you left us a five -star review wherever you listen to your podcasts. It helps more witches, seekers, and magical misfits find our show.
Speaker: Want even more Get and Lose Your Content? Join our Patreon or Supercast Coven. as a member you'll get early access to episodes exclusive printable shadow work and grimoire pages access to our witchy book club promo codes for merch and so much more just check the show notes for the link or search get in loser we're doing witchcraft on supercast and patreon You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Get In Witches or email us at weredoingwitchcraft at gmail .com.
Speaker: Join us next week as we travel to some more spooky destinations. Until then, stay magical, stay curious, and as always, Blessed be witches.
