Samhain XX details online
Samhain XX details online
All the info on the 20th Annual Public Witch Ritual this Friday, Oct. 31 are online at http://oldenwilde.org/SamhainXX -- everything from the theme ("Full Circle"), to map/directions for the site (French Broad River Park in West Asheville), to the musical refrain we invite all who bring an instrument, drum, or voice to help play (the simple, ancient, haunting "Lyke Wake Dirge"). Oh wait, one more thing! We'll be signing copies of The Goodly Spellbook's new, expanded 10th-anniversary edition, either ones you bring or our author copies we'll be selling for $25 (as long as the supply lasts).
Looks like the ever-more-popular rite will once again be well attended: The city's Parks and Rec Director told us folks have been calling his office from faraway places to ask for directions to the Samhain ritual, and he himself plans to come with six friends and a drum!
Q&A's with Lady Passion and *Diuvei
Two local news publications have published question-and-answer interviews with us this month:
* "Celebrating Samhain with Coven Oldenwilde" by Jordan Foltz is in alt newsweekly Mountain Xpress's current, Oct. 22 issue. Right now it's only in the print edition, but by Oct. 29 it should be available online at:http://mountainx.com/living/spirituality/.
* "Found in Translation" by Tom Kerr is in the October 2014 web edition of Bold Life Magazine, at:http://www.boldlife.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A36429. But we liked the full, unabridged version of Tom's interview so much that we've posted it on our website at: http://oldenwilde.org/blog/413/pagan-perspective/q-and-a-with-witch-clergy-lady-passion-and-diuvei.
* And speaking of Q&A, once we catch our breath after Samhain (and a ritual we'll be doing a couple of weeks later for a college religion class that's travelling here from South Carolina), we plan to edit and post the videos of the two popular and enjoyable booksignings we did in September at Malaprops and Raven & Crone. Just as we'd hoped, our ever-insightful fans asked us many thought-provoking questions about magic and Witchcraft.
Here in the Southern Appalachians we practice what scholars might call "pyrrharctomancy" -- the art of foretelling the coming winter's severity by the black vs. reddish bands on woolly worm caterpillars, aka "woolly bears" or Pyrrharctia isabella ("pyrrharctia" is Greek for "flame-colored bear"). These fuzzy larvae of the Isabella tiger moth that appear every fall produce an internal antifreeze that allows them to survive subero winters. In this and other parts of the U.S. folks predict the severity or moderation of each of the 13 weeks of winter by whether the corresponding band on the woolly worm is black or red.
But how do you know which woolly worm to "read", since individual ones are rarely alike? In Banner Elk, NC,, home of a long-running annual Woolly Worm Festival, they hold a race, and the winning worm -- out of some 1200 entrants -- is the predictor. (See wooly worm "Kwazimodo's" predictions for 2014-2015 at: http://www.citizen-times.com/story/carol-motsinger/2014/10/19/woolly-worm-forecast-winter/17549699/.) Festival organizers claim an 80-85% accuracy rate.
Divining by the victor of a ritual contest is actually a magical technique that's at least as old as the Roman chariot races, whose four "factions" were associated by color with the four seasons (seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariot_racing). But we don't have the time or inclination to race woolly worms, so we rely instead on the same magical theory as the "qualtagh" (see the Ancient Witch Words in The Goodly Spellbook): The first woolly worm of the season that we come across is the predictor. Last year, the little pyrrharctomantic prognosticator pictured here accurately foretold our mostly moderate local winter.
