Halloween and Vikings

 Many have asked why some people who follow an old Norse spiritual path recognise Halloween. My answer is that we create our own traditions from enjoying Halloween growing up, and then choosing a spiritual and religious equation. Some turn their backs on Halloween and link it to both their childhoods and towards a different belief. I personally recognise the time of year as lowering of the veil. It doesn't matter if Heathens and Odinists still love Halloween. There is a similar theme across old pre-Christian religions. 

Shadow Girl says: The Norse people had a different type of celebration to Samhain/Halloween but can still be recognised as spooky. There was a big rite called Alfablot, which means "Sacrifice to the elves". People would give food offerings to ghosts and nature spirits. They respected the spirits of the dead and thanked their ancestors for giving them life, so they honoured ancestral dead and believed they visited this time of year. Much food was prepared and a place was reserved at the table for the spirits. There were more rites including Disablot and Winter Nights, both of which celebrated spirits. 

Storm Valkyrie responds: Disablot was another celebration this Autumn that honoured certain magical female spirits called the Disir, often with food such as cakes and drinking mead. Some celebrated this during mid-October and it lasted three nights, but others made a Spring time version called Disting. There is also Winter Nights, or Vetrnaetr, who saw this time of year as the very start of winter. It was very big on feasts and festivities. It involved much eating and drinking, as well as respect towards the dead, as they celebrated spirits and gave thanks to the gods. Both Spring and Autumn equinoxes have seasons of ancestral worship and beliefs in spirits/ghosts and the paranormal becoming more stronger. Today we've got Halloween, or Samhain, and others like Day of the Dead during Autumn. And then in Spring there is Beltane, Walpugis Night and Easter. 

Shadow Girl: Ancient people recognised the two equinoxes as a period of equal hours, day and night, so they found this time important to celebrate the spirits. It's seen as a special time for balance, almost the two different equinoxes are periods in time that are mirrors of one another. Dark and Light. 

Storm Valkyrie: It's believed to connect to rebirth with the sun itself changing. In Greek mythology, the goddess Persephone returns to the Underworld and we experience Autumn, then Winter. When she returns to the Earth again, Spring appears and then Summer. It's seen as a balance and an explanation for the shifting seasons. Also this was extremely important in agriculture, when farmers planted their crops. Autumn has always been a time of gathering food for the winter months ahead. Be well and enjoy!

Storm Valkyrie and Shadow Girl

Halloween animals

 Scary paranormal creatures and ghosts are one thing. Nature itself has made some creepy animals much associated with the season of Halloween/Samhain. Here are some of these animals that Halloween wouldn't be without.

Black cats, most often associated with Halloween and appears as a shadowy feline with witchcraft links. The cutest and friendliest, although the Halloween black cat is viewed as a symbol of bad luck. So sad this time of year many black cats are left abandoned. It goes back to centuries of superstition that black cats are magical and many superstitious people believed they're are the familiars of witches. This means people thought black cats are not natural but are witches and demons in disguise. 

Our view on this: Black cats are awesome. They'll get rid of vermin in your house. Black cats don't fear creepy crawlies either. These cats are guardians of the home and they can protect people from evil spirits. Stop being cruel to cats and give them a decent loving home. They're a blessing. Once upon a time, cats were favourites and worshipped in ancient Egypt. The goddess Freyja loves cats. 

Spiders, the one thing I fear the most while sat down with tea and a book, when a spider scurries along the floor and gives me the shock of my life. I honestly have arachnophobia, mainly because I grew up in a household with a warm conservatory, greenhouse and second bathroom, which attracted great big spiders! I understand why spiders are a Halloween beastie. 

Shadow Girl's view: Spiders are more afraid of you than you are afraid of them. You're size compared to a spider is enormous. You're the size of a mountain and a spider regards you as a giant. Without spiders, there would be much more terrible bugs infesting everywhere causing problems such as disease and famine. Spiders are a very important part of nature as it's part of the stable food chain.

Wolves are often associated with Halloween and night time. Mainly the full moon itself, and Autumn season is when it gets darker so nights are longer, bringing with it fears of the wilderness outside. In centuries passed, people even in the British Isles hid indoors because packs of wolves used to howl. This terrifies people even now. And not forgetting werewolves that are supernatural creatures associated with the full moon, and these are always connected to Halloween.

Our view: Wolves are much more active during Autumn season because of their prey having certain migration changes. This is when wolf pups have grown bigger and joining the adults for hunting. It's when wolves are out preparing for winter. 

Ravens are very much associated with Halloween. Most ravens as well as crows are believed to be bad luck omens, connected to magic and death. Often portrayed as being in graveyards, beside skulls and ghosts, this imagery of them is because of superstition and folklore. 

Our view: Ravens and crows are very intelligent and they have good memory. These are scavengers and they eat carrion. Plenty of gothic works of fiction made about ravens and crows link them with the supernatural. They can recognise individual people and they remember who was nice to them. Ravens are also able to be trained to speak. We love these birds.

Bats are so Halloween and many believe these are vampires turned into bats. It's believed that they're blood drinkers and some still think bats are blind. Associated with vampires and also the night. Bats are often out at night, which superstitious people believe connects them to vampires. 

Our view: Bats are nocturnal creatures and active only at night. During Samhain and Bonfire night, the fires attracted insects that also drew in bats who hunt them. Many bats are mostly active during autumn months when they prepare for their winter hibernation. European explorers in South America stumbled upon vampire bats who fed on blood of animals. The majority of bat species are insectivores and herbivores who mostly eat fruit.   

Storm Valkyrie and Shadow Girl

Monsters of the Vikings

 

Not much is known of the sinister entities lurking in Viking, Norse and Germanic legends. Because it's Halloween, we wanted to mention these shady, scary and horrific creatures that seem nightmarish and sends chills down the spine.

Meet Nokken, a handsome man who plays beautiful music. How wonderful he is, so talented and alluring. He makes women (and even men) go weak at the knees, because he's enchanting and resembles a typical fairy tale prince. He wants to go out with you, or really take you down with him. Nokken isn't really what you think he is. As soon as you approach him, you'll be lost forever. He's often found close to ponds, rivers, streams, lakes, in gardens, woodlands, parks, mountains and even beside the pool. He'll play music for you and sing for you. He'll charm you and you will feel drawn to him. Nokken will take you where no one else can follow, because he'll drown you. Before this happens, you'll see him for what he really is: a monster. 

Meet the Draugr, these awesomely powerful zombies. They look awful, haven't bathed for so long, and bring a chill to any party they always gate crash! They make excellent guardians and armies though, as they protect treasure but more than that, they would kill anyone who dares rob them. 

Meet Huldra, the beautiful lady of the forest. She certainly looks like a seductive dryad, and she can be kind and helpful. But then she's not as she seems. She's not human, and hiding a tail as well as her hollow back, which resembles the insides of a rotten tree. Huldra can be cruel and spiteful. 

Meet the Lindworms, these huge serpentine dragons who guard treasure. They're similar to typical dragon legends but Lindworms are venomous and so toxic that they chew at the roots of the World Tree. They're like a virus and they can blind people before eating them. 

Meet Surtr the fire giant. He's no ordinary giant, and he's not someone that be slain easily. Surtr is much more deadly and powerful. He's capable to destroying anything and everything with his fire powers. He carries Certilogi, a brilliant flaming sword as bright as the sun. He'll lead an army of fire giants and break the connection of realms. He'll topple Bifrost and engulf the world in flames. His entire being is death and he'll cause an apocalyptic end to all life.

Meet Fenrir the gigantic wolf presently chained. He never stopped growing, One day he'll break free from the chains and kill the gods, but what's more are his two sons, wolves that will destroy the sun and the moon. The wolf is the ultimate Big Bad Wolf villain. He doesn't just eat people. He'll cause destruction and chaos then play a part in the end of the world. 

Meet Kraken, a giant sea monster in the form of a squid or octopus. This enormous creature torments sailors and is responsible for sinking ships. Often found at sea near coasts of Greenland, Iceland, Norway and anywhere in the North Sea. It's appetite is also huge and it can even consume whales.

Storm Valkyrie and Shadow Girl  

Scary beauty

Today there's Halloween face paint and cosmetics with awful themes, and instructions on how to look diabolical for that monstrous party. However, there was a time when make-up itself really was evil. It was deadly and sent so many innocent people to early graves.

Arsenic poisons were a very normal ingredient for ghost white make-up products. Arsenic face powders and eye shadow looked like thin wafers, and many women bit into them! This was believed to enhance that pale glow loved by Victorians. It was fashionable to look ghostly with an alabaster white complexion, admired by eerie Victorians who also followed the grim trend of taking corpse family photos!

Mixed with that was mercury! That was within lead cosmetics for blushes, lip colour and mascara. It was believed mercury gave such striking colours to the face that vampires would be envious of. That included deathly pale skin and bloodred lips. They even used mercury to treat skin problems and thicken eyelashes. Mercury was vindictive and damaged the skin so much that women used more make-up to conceal it! Sadly they ended up in coffins.

During the reign of the Tudor monarchs, women loved seeking out Venetian ceruse make-up as it gave them an enchanting fairy complexion. They looked otherworldly wearing it but this powder contained lead poison. Many young women died including Maria Coventry, because of severe lead poisoning after wearing these face powders. No tooth fairies there! So far the problems women had using such poison in make-up led to ill health, tooth loss, trembling, nerve damage, amnesia and premature deaths. 

The "Beautiful woman" make-up is belladonna from the toxic deadly nightshade flower. It was used in cosmetics during the Italian Renaissance, mainly as eyedrops to give women bright sparkling eyes. This resulted in many damaged eyes including blindness. In ancient Rome, women used cinnabar to redden their cheeks and cinnabar is full of toxic lead. Trying to look like shining goddesses and angels, these women tragically became corpses.

The most freakiest beauty product lasted for decades during the 20th century, with fatal radiation in cosmetics! Tho-Radia make-up was aimed at women to give them a supernatural glowing beauty. It was aimed at women who wanted to achieve a shimmering look. There was a popular advertisement featuring a picture of a blonde woman covered in light. She looked stunning and many women wanted to achieve that striking beauty. The result was devastating. 

Storm Valkyrie and Shadow Girl 

Opening a door

October is a time of darkness overcoming light, longer nights and changing clocks. It's when the veil between the physical and the otherworldly is lowered. Later in the month traditionally we celebrate Samhain and Halloween, by using decorations, lanterns, costumes and remembering ancestors, while keeping in tune with the earthly season. We notice the changes in bird song, temperature, atmosphere and wildlife that turns a different colour and texture. Even the scents change in the outside air, tinged with autumn spices and early mist. 

On magic spells and details of divination, scrying was my very first. Many years ago I started scrying, just using small glassy reflections, These were not just mirrors, those didn't work for me, but any shiny object including dark bottles of glitter nail polish, which helped make the visions appear. At the time doing this, I was naive and didn't know what was happening. 

Since then I found a new purpose and realised my new skills as a psychic medium woke up. I've been in psychic classes and connected with spirits. Because of this I could no longer do scrying work anymore. It was as if a door closed behind me when another one opened. Some people are able to keep all these doors opened. 

A lady called Shadow Girl will be posting with me on this blog sometimes.  

Storm Valkyrie

October sayings

 

Here are some interesting and very old folklore sayings about the month of October. These have passed down over time and can be associated with nature and superstition. Some will be common and others obscure. 

When deer are in grey coat in October, expect a severe winter.

When birds and badgers are fat in October, a cold winter is expected.

Leaves remaining on branches in October predict a frosty snowy winter.

Many berries mean a hard winter is likely.

Much rain in October, much wind in December.

A warm October means a cold February.

When it freezes and snows in October, January will bring mild weather. If it is thundering and heat-lighting, the winter will resemble April in temper.

A good October and a good blast, So blow the hog acorn and mast.

As the weather in October, so it will be in March.

Gnats in October are a sign of fair winter.

In cold long winters, rabbits are fat in October and November. In mild and pleasant winters, they are poor in those months.

Full moon in October without frost, no frost until the full moon in November.

These sayings are centuries old and have been known from nature observations. They say these are not based on scientific facts but they have some element of wisdom, which I could explore. The mild Autumns and Indian Summers can cause leaves to delay falling off, and the frost can occur late depending on the wind. Climate change has also created milder winters, causing animals to struggle until they find food. Many thanks to Farmers Almanac for providing a list of weather lore. 

Storm Valkyrie