Halloween, or Samhain as us witches call it, isn't just an extra spooky day, it's a day for honouring the dead. It's a day where the veil between the spirit world and the physical world is at its thinnest, and so seances are extremely popular this time of year. However, with the door half open, spirits don't necessarily need to be invited in order to walk the earth.
Halloween on Female First
Thus, if you want to avoid an unwelcome spectral visit this Halloween, here are six rituals you can complete (no matter how competent you are at witchcraft!) to keep those spooks away.
1. Jamaican duppie bag
Carry a mojo bag filled with asafoetida, camphor and garlic wrapped in black cloth, and tie with a black silk ribbon.
Asafoetida in particular is very popular in Jamaican folklore for banishing ghosts or "duppies". It's also used in ceremonial magick for protection and for binding freshly evoked spirits.
2. Feed the ghosts!
On the night of Halloween, offerings of milk and barley on your doorstep keeps the ghosts appeased so they're less likely to cause mischief. Also, you can bury apples at a crossroads.
3. Full of beans
Scatter beans around your home or throw them at the ghost to banish it. This particular ritual was outlined in Roman poet Ovid's Book V of Fasti:
"After cleansing his hands in spring water,
He turns and first taking some black beans,
Throws them with averted face: saying, while throwing:
'With these beans I throw I redeem me and mine.'
He says this nine times without looking back: the shade
Is thought to gather the beans, and follow behind, unseen."
4. Stock up on herbs
Using herbs is commonplace in witchcraft when it comes to cleansing rooms and magical spaces, but you can burn sage or powdered bistort to ward off evil spirits too. Also, keep rosemary under your pillow, hang a wreath of fresh bay laurel on your door, and stuff fennel in keyholes to trap ghosts.
5. Get naked.
When all else fails, flash the ghost. Seriously, dropping your pants and aggressively flashing a spirit can banish them in an instant. It's mostly effective for a woman to do this, and apparently exposing an erect penis doesn't do the trick. If you're body-shy though (or in public), keep an amulet around your neck of an upside-down triangle.
