the Earth element, you put a candle on it and you light it. They are very beautiful and safe. It’s always a good rule to oil the candle before you light it; you can use an essential oil from our production to do that, I’ll show you how to make them, it’s not difficult. Of course, you need to concentrate when you oil and light it, to instil our will to the candle. Now tell me: on which days can we help Sheila and which candles shall we use in your opinion?”
“To give her strength, a waxing Moon Tuesday, because you said that during this phase energy gets stronger, the colour of the candle will be red. To move away bad cells and the remains of remedies, a waning Moon Saturday instead, the colour will be black.”
“Excellent Sarah, really excellent!”, our granny clapped her hands satisfied.
“I’ll add two very important colours: magenta and purple red. The first one works on our psyche fast, because it has the ability of awakening the magical power of our mind. The second one instead, is the symbol of Wisdom and it is used to move bad luck away. It’s enough for today, Sarah, let’s go and find your sister now.”
I sprang up and went back into my bedroom without being noticed.
“Ok. Granny, do you really think we’ll be able to help Stella?”
“You see my child, I could never replace traditional medicine; treatments are important, but doctors and science have left behind some other sides in time. There’s always a reason behind an illness. The power of positive thoughts helps us to feel better; some people go to church, they say the rosary, they go on pilgrimage or something like that, they firmly believe in what they are doing. You can’t realize the power of our mind at all and the consequences of our words. You’ll see, your friend’s mum will get better, you mustn’t stop believing it.”
“Thanks granny. Let’s go to Anne now, if I know her well, she must be starving.
Old Mal came to the cottage the next morning.
“Here you are, the best pumpkins in all Marlow, directly from Sainsbury’s. Our girls are too grown up to play “treat or trick” along the road, but carving pumpkins is compulsory at all ages. We have to keep away the bad souls going around on that night…and don’t forget to leave some gifts for them! Talking about gifts, I almost forgot, I’ve got just two strawberry candies for you.”
He was always cheerful, he conveyed happiness just being close to him.
“Thanks Mal, you’re always spoiling us.”
“You are my favourite girls, it’s normal I want to spoil you. Susan, I don’t have any candies for you, but an invitation. You are going to be my “plus one” at Christmas dinner, to christen the new town gym.”
“Oh, Mal…I’m left wordless! Thanks, I haven’t gone out for dinner for ages. I don’t even know if I have suitable clothes”, our granny admitted pretending to be shy.
“Mum will lend you something!”, I suggested.
Our granny out for dinner with Mal, that was really something new!
“Yes, Rebecca will lend you something. You are going to be very beautiful as usual. And then, the rebuilding of the gym was made thanks to you too, with all the violet potholders you sold at the last May Fayre. It took three years to raise the money we needed, but we managed at last, and what event could be better than Christmas to inaugurate it? The dinner will be on 21st December, isn’t that great?”
“For Yule, that’s wonderful! I hope there will be also a nice decorated log.”
My grandmother had taught us since we were very young the importance of seasons, equinoxes, solstices and of certain days such as Halloween or May Day.
Halloween was for her Samhain, the Celtic New Year’s Eve; it stood for the end of the period of light and the entrance into the darkness of winter. Nature seems to die, it withdraws into itself, animals go into hibernation and also men withdraw into the warmth of their houses. It’s a magic moment, when the curtain between the world of the living and the one of the dead gets thinner; for that reason it’s a good habit to honour our dear dead, leaving gifts for them and lighting candles to help them find the light.
Our granny also explained to us that the pumpkins left outside are used to scare the damned souls who can’t find their peace and want to annoy the living.
Wearing fancy dresses and going around asking for some sweets is just a parody of these dead souls, who ask for gifts and threaten to play bad tricks. I remember that, every time we emptied a pumpkin, she kept three seeds and put them into her purse.
“So money will never miss”, she said.
Mal and granny called Christmas Yule and they celebrated it on 21st December, the day of the winter solstice, the period when days are really short and the cold is biting. She told us that solstice meant literally “ Still- Sun”.
“Do you remember, girls, when you get on the panoramic wheel and it stops at the highest point, and then at the lowest? Well, the Sun does the same thing. In winter the Sun is in the lower part of the wheel, it’s more hidden, but it’s there. During the solstice it stops for a while and then it starts to rise again. Christmas stands for the rebirth of the Child Sun, exactly like Jesus who was born in the darkness of a cave.”
From that moment, days get longer again slowly; every year the same magic takes place with exactness. We decorated the house together with our granny with evergreens, which represented life going on, we lit candles, we put some mistletoe here and there, and it was compulsory to kiss each other under it.
The wooden log taken from our oak couldn’t be missing in our fireplace, it was kept lighted during the whole period of the Christmas holidays, then granny gathered the ashes and spread them around the house, keeping telling: “May negative powers keep away from here!”
I couldn’t understand very well what she meant by negative powers, I thought she was referring to unpleasant people.
When February started, the snow fell heavily and the wind blew freezing from the north, Mal punctually arrived at the cottage, with a new broom.
“A present for the wisest woman in the whole county”, he claimed smiling and granny thanked him with a strange word. “Happy Imbolc to you!”
Granny told us that Nature was slowly waking up in that period, so we had to clean and purify the house. It was quite impossible for me to think already about spring, but I always started to notice some changes after a heavy snowfall or a winter illness: days were beginning to get clearly longer and some shy snowdrop was peeping out in the fields.
“Children, you must always remember that it’s sometimes good to have fever, fire burns and purify. Shall Goddess Brigid protect and bless you.”
We knew how much our granny was devoted to Brigid, she often tried to justify herself by laughing and saying: “Maybe that’s because she has got red hair like mine!”
Everyone took her for an Irish woman. I think she had never been to Ireland; but to make up for it she always went to the Irish pub with Mal on St. Patrick’s day. She didn’t like particularly Saint Patrick, I was sure about that, she used to say that every year, but she could never refuse a beer in good company.
Soon after, Ostara finally arrived, on 21st March, the spring equinox: it was a period of perfect balance,
