Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Steele Alexandra Douris, author of the new Spirits, Seers & Séances. Those of us who enjoy the interplay of the seasonal and the spectral can learn a lot from the Victorians, whose celebrations often combined the festive and the uncanny in striking ways. The Victorians, who were obsessed with ghost legends and lore, truly had spirits for every season. Christmas In nineteenth-century England, which didn't celebrate Hallowe'en as enthusiastically as Scotland, Ireland, or the USA, Christmas was the ghostliest holiday. Spirits were believed to be particularly active at Christmastime, and telling ghost stories around a roaring fire was a

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Linda Raedisch, author of The Old Magic of Christmas and the new Secret History of Christmas Baking. The Secret History of Christmas Baking took me almost two years to write. I did everything by the Old World book: candying my own orange and lemon peel, leaving my Pfefferkuchen dough to age for days in a corner of the kitchen, grating my own nutmeg, and crushing cardamom pods with my little mortar and pestle. By the time I'd sent the manuscript off to my editor, I was ready to take life easy. Don't worry: I put a few shortcuts in the book, too. I gave you, dear reader, permission to buy already-grated nutmeg, and I included my mother's

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Ileana Abrev, author of the new Rainbow of Spells. When I was growing up, colour was a big part of my family’s spiritual life. I grew up in Cuba with a Santero father, a faithful follower of Santeria. When Cuba was colonized, the Spaniards brought Catholicism and thousands of slaves came with them. These were from the Yoruba tribe in Africa. The priest tried to convert them to Catholicism, but they wouldn't convert until they found similarities with Catholic Saints and their Deities. This was the birth of Santeria. Santeria focuses a lot on color; each deity has their color that reinforces their attributes. Since I was little, I knew the

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Ben Stimpson, author of the new Ancestral Whispers. One of the first things many Pagans want to do when they start practicing is to erect an altar or shrine. It makes total sense; creating that little space as a focal point for our practices is important and something found across the world. But, why is it important and what do these spaces actually do for us and the spirits we work with? The Difference Between Altars and Shrines There is some debate as to what the difference is between a shrine and an altar. The words are often used interchangeably, but I've found it useful to think about the differences and how each can relate to