Samhain is an important holiday for Wiccans. It marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the winter in the Gaelic harvest calendar. Bonfires play a huge role for practical reasons like protection, gathering, and driving off pests and symbolic reasons like purification and marking the turning of the year. The day carried strong associations with the dead and ancestors. It’s sometimes referred to as a thinning veil. Divination customs are also traditions in modern harvests and Halloween traditions. This book explores the various customs and traditions associated with the holiday including for various types of Wiccans.
The chapters include “History and Origin,” “Symbolism and Correspondence,” “Planning Your Celebration,” “The Solitary Flame: Rituals for Solitary Practice,” “Two Flames: Rituals for Couples,” “The Family Hearth: Rituals for Families,” “The Circle’s Fire: Rituals for Covens,”and “Until The Wheel Turns Again.”
One of the most intriguing facets of this book is the emphasis on different Wiccan rituals for solitaries, couples, families, and covens. To do this author Nuith Lachesis mentions specific people who represent those types: Rowan, a Solitary Wiccan who lives in an urban apartment, so has access to only a limited amount of tools to practice her craft, Briar, a Solitary Wiccan with 20 years of experience, Dana and Marlowe, a couple who practice Wicca together, The Hart Family, parents Sam and Jordan and their three children Avery, Quinn, and Wren who represent the Fam-Trad tradition of passing Wiccan rituals across generations, and The Ashgrove Circle, a coven of eight to ten members who engage in elaborate ceremonies. These examples personalize the various rituals and practices that Wiccans can take to honor the holiday.
For example “The Solitary Flame” chapter includes “Ancestor Altar Ritual,” “First Solitary Samhain Ritual,” “The Dumb Supper,” “Divination Night,” “A Releasing Ritual,” “Veil-Walking Meditation,” “Apartment Friendly Full Celebration,” and the “Full Solitary Rite.”
Seed of Fear: A Biotech Conspiracy Thriller (The Quiet Harvest Series) by Patrick Seaman
Seed of Fear is a tense and emotion driven thriller about a couple separated by the manipulations of others.
DEA Special Agent Sean McCreary is the only survivor of an ambush that left the rest of his team dead or languishing in the hospital. He is filled with Post Trauma and Survivor's Guilt but he has another more personal struggle to deal with. His girlfriend, Grace Liang, a food engineer, has gone missing. Unbeknownst to her, she created a specific pathway design that other more nefarious government representatives and cartels want to get their hands on. Grace tries to survive her captivity while Alec tries to find her while uncovering the ambush and the reasons behind it.
This book has all of the qualities of an effective thriller. It has nail biting action, various methods of torture, clandestine meetings, betrayals on top of betrayals, and physical, emotional, and mental trauma than a real person can possibly take but it’s all in a day’s work for the protagonists. But what really sells it is the emotional journeys that Alec and Grace are forced to take.
Alec’s PTSD from the ambush is very real. There are some moments where he encounters his former teammates and their family members. He recognizes the cost of living a life on the edge for a government that could thank you for your service one minute and then pretend like you never existed in the first place. In some of the worst moments, he experiences betrayal when he learns that instead of helping him avenge their deaths, his superiors and colleagues would rather hush the whole thing up.
Grace also experiences betrayal as well though a more personal kind. She learns that one of her kidnappers is someone that she knows and once trusted. Her moments with this abductor are some of the emotional highlights as she simultaneously hates their actions and misses the relationship that they used to have.
