Welcome to October, now affectionately known as WHY IS IT STILL SO HOT?? Also known as the month of Halloween. I’m drinking my Pumpkin Cream Nitro Cold Brew from Starbucks in leiu of a typical Pumpkin Spice Latte because it’s still in the mid 90s here in Georgia. Anyone who still thinks that global warming is a myth is clearly an idiot.

OK, rant aside, October is named after the Latin word for eight as it was originally the 8th month of the year, before January and February were added. It’s still really hot here, but the leaves are starting to act like they might want to change color some day. We’ve had a drought for the past month or so, so it might be that they’re just drying out and dying off. The wildlife has changed a bit, however. We’re seeing a lot of cardinals coming back for the Winter, and the geese are coming back here and there. I haven’t seen a lot of snakes or toads lately, though I did see a huge anole yesterday on the shed.

I think we did mow our lawn for the last time this season, however, as it’s browning nicely now. Sweet!

Birthstones: Opal and tourmaline

Lunations:
October 13- Full Moon in Aries, 5:07pm EDT
October 27- New Moon in Scorpio, 11:38pm EDT

Astronomy:
October 3- Pluto goes direct
October 3- Capricornids meteor shower begins
October 6- Camelopardalids meteor shower begins
October 9- Draconids meteor shower begins
October 22- Orionids meteor shower begins
October 31- Mercury goes retrograde

Celtic Tree Month:
Ivy (Sept 30- October 27): End of the harvest, looking back at our successes and losses, strengthening our resolve to face the future, taking the long-term view, fidelity and fertility, protection, healing, good luck for women and brides, guards against negativity and disaster, reaches around and through obstacles to find light and nourishment, reaching out, expansion.
Reed (October 28- November 24): Introverting, withdrawing, connecting with the past and with spirit, ancestors, messages from the spirit world, culling that which doesn’t serve us, dreaming- but not planning. Seeking basic truth, finding direction, giving meaning and purpose to your journey, skill and direction, secret strength and secret motivations, seeing beneath the surface.

Holidays (non-Pagan):
October 4: Feast of St Francis of Assisi (Christian)
October 7: Dussehra (Hindu)
October 9: Leif Erikson Day
October 9: Yom Kippur (Jewish)
October 14: First Day of Sukkot (Jewish)
October 14: Indigenous People’s Day (fka Columbus Day)
October 20: Last Day of Sukkot (Jewish)
October 21: Shmini Atzeret (Jewish)
October 22: Simchat Torah (Jewish)
October 27: Diwali (Hindu)

Holidays (Pagan):
October 1: Feast of the Charities (Greek)
October 2: Feast of Aphrodite (Greek)
October 4: Proerosia- feast offering fruits of the season to Demeter (Greek)
October 9-12: Thesmophoria- Greek festival honoring the transformation of Kore to Persephone as she goes back to the underworld with Hades.
October 14-28: Icelandic Old Winter Nights Feast honoring The Gods and ancestors.
October 17-20: Apatura- Greek festival welcoming babies and newcomers into the community
October 26: Khalkeia- honoring Athena and Hephestos and their gifts of craftsmanship
October 27: Festival of Hekate
October 28: Maimakterion Noumenia- Greek festival honoring all the gods and goddesses
October 28- November 3: Isia- Romano Egyptian festival honoring the murder, mourning, search for, and reassembly of Osiris by Isis.
October 31: Greek festival honoring Aphrodite and Eros
October 31: SAMHAIN!/Celtic New Year/Hallowmass/Feast of Ceridwen/last harvest

Themes for the month: Halloween, contacting the ancestors, going within, being ‘witchy’, the last harvest, apples, corn mazes, pumpkin spice, enjoying the longer nights and the more internal focus if you happen to be introverted like me.

General activities for the month: Parties, visiting haunts, Pagan Pride Days around the country, making cider or apple butter, scrying and other forms of divination, ritual work, shadow work, reconnecting with our deities, preparing for NaNoWriMo if you’re a writer nerd like me.

Herbs I’m using: Mugwort. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what herbs I really respond to and which I have a special relationship with, and mugwort tops that list every time. I’m trying to work with it more, in various forms like dried, essential oil, and as incense or tea. Also, spices that you would use in making apple butter, like cloves and cinnamon. Anything warm and spicy really brings the season home for me.

Stones I’m using: Rutilated quartz- helps with pathworking and finding clarity. Petrified wood- grounding and stabilizing. Keeps me from getting too stuck in my head and ignoring everything around me. Fire agate- keeps me ‘fired up’ and motivated while I try to finish some projects and continue others.

Goddess of the Month: I’ve changed the way I choose my Goddess of the Month. I’m going to start drawing a card from Collette Baron Reid’s Goddess Power Oracle, which my sister gave me a few weeks ago. And this month’s Goddess is…. drumroll…. Skuld (the future). She calls us to look to the future, but not to ignore the present and the seeds that we’re planting right now. We create our future every single day with the choices we make, and we can’t ignore the present in pursuit of the future we’re hoping from.

3 card reading:

First, we start with The Hermit reversed. So this is usually a good time to go within and start doing the inner work we need to do to prepare for Winter, but not this year. This year, we’re going to continue to be outwardly focused. This is a different October from most, in that there’s still a lot of warm weather ahead, and there’s still a lot of the work of Summer to do, even well into Autumn. There may be a delay in the final harvest.

Next, we see The Empress. So while the harvest is delayed, it’s going to be amazing. There’s so much fertility and lushness in this harvest that it will be worth the wait.

Finally, we have the Ten of Imps reversed. In the upright position, this is the card that shows that we’ve just had enough. We’re exhausted and done. But with it reversed, we’re getting a second wind. So even though everything is delayed this month, we have the energy to handle it. We can make it through to the end!

Our special guidance card is Summon. This card is telling us that it’s time to gather our magick and connect with our spirituality. This is a great time for meditation, ritual, and anything that makes us feel ‘connected’. So while this isn’t a time to slow down on our more external goals and projects, it’s still a great time to carve out quiet time to realign with our spiritual life.

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Gathering Leaves
By Robert Frost

Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.

I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.

But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.

I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?

Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.

Next to nothing for use,
But a crop is a crop,
And who’s to say where
The harvest shall stop?

My personal tides: I’m about to publish a book on journaling with tarot, and I’m really excited. It’s the not the first book I’ve written, but it’s the first that I’ve stuck with this far. I even have a cover. 🙂 I’m also going to spend October working with poppet magick, and I’ve bought the supplies to make a poppet for myself and for husbear. I’m looking foward to this new mode of magick. As always, communing with the ancestors and with Hecate are biggies for this time of year.

My personal goals: Continue leveling up my tarot reading (and my tarot earnings), publish my book, start my new book, finish my D10 divination system. Honestly, this is a big month for me, and I’m not quite ready to slow down for the Autumn.