The cooler days really make me want to get in the kitchen to cook and bake. There's just something about the warmth that kitchen magic brings to the home. The scents, flavors and good times. Here are two of my favorite Samhain Recipes that I make every year: Samhain Stew and Samhain Pumpkin Bread. Please feel free to save and print them out. If you make them let me know. For this quick bread you can adjust the spices as you see fit. I add freshly grated ginger and candied ginger pieces. Sometimes I put in chocolate chips. Because - chocolate! Invite friends and family over. Enjoy the eats and the Season!  Have a very magical Samhain! Audra

Have you even been drawn to gathering or harvesting herbs, flowers, roots, etc and had NO IDEA why?  Yeah, that just happened to me. I was outside with Asher, my tiny Hell hound, and had the irresistible urge to pluck acorns off our neighbors tree. Now, in the 16 years we've lived here I've never been "inspired" to pluck acorns from their tree. Strange? Then I couldn't help myself, I had to harvest all the seed pods off our Iris Oriental bush. So I got a bowl and scissors and gathered a bunch. Then took all the seeds out, keeping the pods in tact so they still made a 3 pointed star. Good grief. Why?  I looked up the magical meaning for Iris, here's what I found:  "Iris species. A Moon plant, orris root is good for digging deep into the Moon-ruled subconscious and uprooting what is hidden. Like any Moon herb, it can also be used in divination and dream work. The iris is also called the fleur-de-lis, so this Moon plant has often been associated with dom...

 Ravens Once upon a time and long ago, Odin was walking under the branches of Yggdrasil when two ravens swooped down and settled upon his shoulders. The raven on his left was white as the mists of Niflheim (for back then, all ravens were white), and his eyes mirrored the clouds. The raven on his right glistened in the sun like the snows of Jotunheim, and looked at him with bright clear eyes. And Odin called the raven to his right Hugin, which is Thought, and the other one he named Munin, which means Memory. As the days passed, Hugin and Munin matched the Allfather’s curiosity for everything in the Nine Worlds, flying around and watching and listening to whatever they could, and in the evenings, they returned to him to tell him all they had seen and heard in the long hours of the day. They told him about the slow thoughts of the mountains, the colorful and ever-changing memories of men, and the sound of the song in the heart of everything that lives. And though Odin ...

This is something that comes up a lot. What do I do to protect myself from mischievous spirits? This one is easy, so easy in fact you probably already have it. Ready for this: Sodium Chloride. Yup, regular ole' salt. What's so special about salt you say? It's so mundane. It's also in everything: the Earth, the seas, our bodies, our food. Besides water - salt is a life force. Without it we would die, too much of it and we die.  Down through history in just about every culture around the world you will find stories about the history of it's use in magical rites of purification and protection. In the Jewish culture it is said you should put kosher salt in every corner of a new home or one that has been standing empty for a while to keep the spirits at bay. If your Catholic, salt is an essential ingredient in Holy Water and it's used in exorcisms. In Armenia, you put salt in all your doorways and windowsills to keep out the Evil Eye. In Buddhist tradition, salt repe...