spiritscraft:

Al: What are you going to be for Halloween?

Me: A witch.

Al: What will you wear?

Me: Oh I have a tall black velvet pointy hat, a black dress and striped tights.

Al: Why don’t you wear a teal shirt with red pants and a green sweater.

Me: Thats what I am wearing right now!

Al: Well you are a witch…

Do any other witches on here dress in bright incongruent colors? I know its the stereotype that we wear black dripping with giant pentacles, but all the witches I know (including me) dress like a clothes line collision in the rainbow section of goodwill.

I’m currently all in blue, but I wear all the colors. The other day I was looking for bright yellow pants to add to my collection of bright colors. What about everyone else?

primalheart:

I was requested to make my recommendations for the witchcraft folklore books rebloggable. So here ya go folks. Really there are a lot of great folklore books out there, I highly suggest them over the metaphysical section but that’s just me. And regional folklore will vary.

It took me awhile to answer this because for some reason I thought you were asking about folklore in general and that is a wide and varied subject lol. 

But even folklore for the witchcraft sense is wide and varied. Since it’s all regional. And generally speaking I read books on folklore and extrapolate the witchcraft from that. I tend to lean towards Scottish, Irish, British, and American folklore and traditions myself. 

That being said here are my top recs:

Emma Wilby, The Visions of Isobel Gowdie: Magic, Witchcraft and Dark Shamanism in Seventeenth-Century Scotland

Patrick W. Gainer, Witches, Ghosts, and Signs: Folklore of the Southern Appalachians

Thomas Crofton Croker, Fairy Legends and Traditions of Southern Ireland

Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland

The Foxfire Books edited by Eilot Wigginton

For general folklore info and a good book for how to get the information you may want out of folklore: 

Dorson, Richard, ed. Folklore and Folklife: An Introduction.

It’s also a great idea to get in touch with your local college or university as they frequently have Folklore departments. You can also try googling your area for a Folklore Society, which are a wealth of information and knowledge that can be used in a variety of different ways.

Hope that helped!  

So, one of the Celtic gods and goddesses that was specifically asked about was Epona. I kind of hesitate to talk about Epona and put her in a specific pantheon location because it’s really unknown where she originates and how she spread across Europe so completely. 

So, “Epona” is a Gallic name or Gaulish. That means, etymologically speaking, it appears to be a Celtic-origin Goddess. Ep for a horse -on- to represent a divine being and -a to distinguish a feminine. So, You have a Divine Mare that appears to be Gaulish in origin.

I say “appears” because a lot of the physical evidence found on Epona appears to be from after the Romans swept across Europe. That being said, in the lands of the Gael the Gall, there is a LOT of information missing, because so many of the stories and myths were purely Bardic tales and Legends. With so vast a verbal history, historians and Archaeologist have a hard time placing the origin of a lot of different things. While, the vast majority of the figures featuring Epona are, indeed found in Gaulish lands, the fact that the Roman Empire is involved in the dating process just makes things harder, because the Romans were not shy about adapting other nations gods and goddesses to their own worship. They then spread them far across Europe, so it becomes difficult. 

A lot of the really good information on Epona is in French, which I do not speak fluently enough to be of any real help finding and translating, only that a lot of the references given on other sites list French (and occasionally German) sources, which is understandable, considering, you know, Gaul is one of the reputed places of origin.

Epona is of course, associated with horses and was largely worshiped by peoples whose lives and livelihoods were dependent upon horses. Horses are usually associated with strength, fertility, and speed. The most common associations that I can find via pagan sites with questionable sources is that offerings of carrots and apples are typically given. This seems like it could be a valid offering based on the fact that horses typically get carrots and apples as treats. 

I have also founds some other places that seem to link her to dreaming and sleep, but they tell vastly different stories of what she will bring you. One stating that she promotes positive dreams and the other nightmares, so I guess it depends on what you think. I, personally, don’t have very many GOOD associations with horses. I don’t really care for them, and they return the favor, so I’m inclined to lean towards bringing nightmares, but there are some people who would say that horses are sweet, loving animals who would never do that… so, I guess it’s if you and horses get along or not?

I have seen a few of depictions of her with white/light grey horses  (I don’t have sources for these images, as the sites they are from don’t list them, if you find them, let me know and I will list them.) There is some suggestions that this is supposed to represent the Camargue Horse. Which, are a particular breed of wild horse found in the Camargue wetlands in France. They are dark-colored as foals and grow out of the dark hair, though the skin underneath is still dark, making them appear a grey-white color. They are smaller and hardy, with an even temper and a good nature that makes them good for riding. I would say that this says that Epona herself would carry these same characteristics if, in fact, I can every locate evidence other than Epona and Camargue are kind of sortof from the same area, to connect them. Though, I tend to be of the mindset that I don’t believe anything until I can find better sources, and there is surprisingly little definitive information about Epona to pull from, so that could be why I’m so skeptical about what to associate with her, and how she will respond.

That being said, I think saying that Epona carries a lot of the same personality traits as horses would be a very smart way to approach understanding/communicating/respecting/worshiping this particular Goddess, wherever she may be from. I hope this helps….

And because I can’t resist. Have an Epona 

More info:

http://www.epona.net/index.html
http://spheresoflight.com.au/index.php?page=keepers_epona 
http://www.thaliatook.com/OGOD/epona.html
http://zelda.wikia.com/wiki/Epona  (This is not an actual source… it’s just a modern adaptation of Epona)