What does Samhain mean to you?

Samhain is celebrated around October 31. It is the beginning of winter, the day the fairies go underground, and the night to contact dearly departed ones.

Winter begins. October 31 marks six weeks after the autumnal equinox, when dark begins to predominate and the days are noticeably shorter.  Winter is days of dark more than days of cold, and by Samhain, the growing dark cannot be denied. Is my firewood cut and stacked? Is the indoor plumbing insulated and ready for cold? Is all outdoor plumbing drained and turned off? Are the gardens raked and composted? Are the freezer and the pantry stocked? Is there enough hay in the barn?

The fairies leave the land. October 31 ends with the clang of the gate that guards fairyland closing. The fairies and nature spirits have retired to their underground homes and won’t be seen again until May Day, the start of summer. In the British Isles, this signals an end to harvesting, but not in the New World, where berries are sweeter gathered after a frost or two, and roots are more medicinal when leaf growth has stopped. 

The dead return. On October 31 the veil that separates the living from the dead becomes permeable, thin, easy to see through. Spirit voices may cross the void. Ephemeral images may cross the retina. Picnic on your ancestors’ graves and praise their lives for making yours possible. Light a candle in a vegetal skull. Savor the sweetness of life. Create a little harmless chaos. Pretend to be someone other than your usual self.

How would you normally celebrate this day?

I celebrate the Witch’s New Year in these ways. I picnic by the cairn where my departed goats rest, praise the ancestors, light fires and put candles in pumpkins and turnips, turn a ton of apples into cider, sauce, and apple butter, gussy up in something special and socialize, bake and create pies and cookies and sweets of all kinds, taste the first fements, stay up all night, listen closely and keep my eyes open, apply flying ointment and drift off into a trance.

What is your favourite part about this time of year?

Samhain is the beginning of a new year and the end of the old year. Everywhere I look is beauty. Everywhere I look is death. Crimson maple leaves against a cerulean sky. Bare branches against the clouds. Everywhere I look is abundance. Everywhere I look disappears from sight. Acorns hail down, knocking us on the noggin, fattening the goats and the pigs; lore says such a gift of protein from the trees presages a long and frigid winter. The flowers sleep, the lush green falls to earth, juicy things shrivel, plants set seed and die, fish and frogs dig down into the mud and disappear, like the fairies, into their underground winter homes.

What seasonal plants are you foraging and using at the moment?

The end of October is the beginning of the season for digging roots. Time to harvest burdock and yellow dock, teasel and poke. Tinctures of these medicinal roots will keep me healthy and help me deal with problems. The end of October is the end of the salad season, nonetheless, we can a festive salad. And, of course, one needs flying ointment to celebrate.

Samhain Salad

Mustard greens or arugula, field mint, lemon balm, catnip, garlic mustard, chickweed, plantain, malva, violet leaves, bedstraw, northern hibiscus flowers, roasted pumpkin seeds, lettuce if desired. Dress with organic olive oil, tamari, goldenrod vinegar, gomasio.

Flying Ointment

Roast herbs in oil to cover in a moderate oven for 2-3 hours. Strain. For best results, cook a toad in oil and combine that with the herbal oil. May be applied to the armpits, the groin, and the temples. 

Use as many of these plants as you can find: poke berries, poke root, Datura root, cannabis leaves and flowers, mullein leaves and flowers, henbane, black nightshade, bittersweet nightshade, tomato leaves, hard green tomatoes, belladonna, tobacco.

Which recipes, potions, lotions will you be preparing in your kitchen this Samhain?

I’ve looked at all the remedies the apprentices and I made this year. What else do we want? What else do we need? How about some pine needle vinegar and some lemon balm oil? And another jar of field mint vinegar; it tastes so good in watermelon soup. And some honeys of mint and lavender and rosemary and sage; so soothing in the winter. And let’s make a love potion, shall we?

Love Potion

Stir together:

2 heaping tablespoons organic fair trade cocoa powder and 2-4 tablespoons organic sugar

In a pan, on a small flame, stir in, bit by bit

2 cups milk

And heat gently until quite hot.

Pour into two mugs and add to each:

1 dropperful hawthorn berry tincture (to give the heart strength)

1 dropperful schisandra berry tincture (to stir up the vital forces)

1 dropperful ginseng root tincture (for stamina)

If available: 1 dropperful tincture of blueberries, raspberries, black berries, or cherries

What tips can you offer those of us from urban environments on how to live more seasonally?

What a wonderful question.

• Seasonal foods in my area (northeast north America) in late autumn include apples, grapes, pears, cranberries, blueberries, rose hips, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, onions, leeks, winter squash, sweet potatoes, kale, collards, broccoli, cauliflower, mustard greens, fall lettuces, radishes and turnips. Eating seasonally and using the following tips will help you connect more with the earth and the seasons.

• Go outside in all kinds of weather. Pick a favorite place or two outside and commit to spending five minutes there every day. Sit with your eyes closed and listen for the sounds of nature. 

• Join the Giveaway Dance. Every breath out is a giveaway to the plants. Each breath in is the plants’ gift to you. Practice the Giveaway Dance by imagining that your breath is a color. Imagine a plant taking that color in, changing it to green, and giving it to you. 

• Breathe out with gratitude. Gratitude opens the heart to the miracles of nature. Gratitude connects us to our environment. The only emotion better than gratitude is awe. Nature is awesome!

• Let Your Heart Beat as One with the Earth. Sink your consciousness down into the earth. Let gravity take you all the down to the heart of the earth. Imagine or feel the beating of the great warm heart of the earth. Let your heart synchronize with that. Let your heart beat as one with the earth’s heartbeat, heartbeat.

• Eat Something Wild. The easiest way to live more seasonally, is to eat more seasonally. A bite of some wild plant every day will do nicely. I know, it takes some courage to eat the weeds in urban environments. Fears and concerns abound. Do avoid any plants near to feces of any kind and those that appear to have been sprayed with chemicals (brown or slick). Otherwise, eating a small bit of wild urban food is safe, fun, and a great way to connect with your seasonal environment. Last March in Manhattan, I munched on wintergreen berries planted in front of a hotel, lamb’s quarter growing by a fence, chickweed from a window box, and mugwort/cronewort leaves taking advantage where ever they could. My class in Amsterdam was able to find two dozen edible and medicinal plants in February, in an hour and a half. If you want control, plant your own window box or mini garden of urban weeds.

Read more about about Susun Weed and her work on her website http://www.susunweed.com/

I recommend always doing your own research when foraging wild plants. Always ask from advice from trained herbalists and if you are not sure what it is, then I recommend not to consume it.