The Witchy Season: You Better Believe It

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“Spooky season is here, a time of ghost stories, flickering candles, and marathons of horror classics,“ begins an article touting not just costumes for trick-or-treating, not just lawn decorations (which now rival those for Christmas), but actual occult kits for those who don’t know or don’t care that they’re summoning demons. 

“For many of us, autumn isn’t just about scary costumes and pumpkin carving (though we definitely love all of that, too). This season opens a portal for honoring ancestors, embracing transformation, and connecting to the unseen.”

The expression–“summoning demons”–was popularized, of late, by the mega-billionaire Elon Musk, but hardly one he created. It goes back to ancient pagan times.

And now it seems appropriate that it is used in the modern pagan era.

About those kits sold on the website, some are rather self-explanatory.:

Now you’ll excuse us for this. But it’s good to know where and how prominent the enemy is.

To counter it, a Saint Michael prayer please.w you’ll excuse us for this. But it’s good to know where and how prominent the enemy is. To counter it, a Saint Michael prayer please.

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“Written by bruja and creative director Bri Luna, Blood Sex Magic: Everyday Magic for the Modern Mystic reclaims witchcraft as both ancestral inheritance and an act of resistance,” says the site, called Refinery 29. “Drawing from her Mexican, Indigenous, and African roots, Luna—best known as the founder of The Hoodwitch—explores how ritual and spirituality can be tools for empowerment in modern life.”
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Some are not so self-explanatory.
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That’s a “curse candle.”
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The Lord rebuke you, Satan!
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We’ll not belabor the point.
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Suffice it to say that botanicas are no longer just little shops in dense neighborhoods in cities like Newark or New Orleans or San Francisco.  “Brujas and healers use this energy to reflect, give thanks, and release. Across Latin American and Latine communities, this could take many forms: a limpia with ruda or rosemary to clear energy, lighting copal or palo santo to call in guidance, or creating a small bóveda espiritual to honor those who came before us,” says the site.
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“Whether you come from a long line of spiritual practitioners or are beginning to follow your mystical curiosities, autumn invites us to embrace the spiritual. We’ve gathered some of our favorite Latina-owned witchy brands and tools to help you cleanse the energy around you, connect with yourself and your ancestors, manifest your next chapter, or create your own rituals.”
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Pass the Holy Water, please.
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And lawn decorations.
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WalMart?
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Amazon?
Make the Sign of the Cross when you pass stuff that can emanate more than you might think.
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And how about a purification prayer:
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Jesus, pour Thy Precious Blood over me—my body, mind, soul, and spirit; my conscious and subconscious; my intellect and will; my feelings, thoughts, emotions, and passions; my words and actions; my vocation; and my relationships, family, friends, and possessions. Protect with Thy Precious Blood all other activities of my life. Lord, I dedicate all of these things to Thee, and I acknowledge Thee as Lord and Master of all.

Mary, Immaculate Conception, pure and holy Virgin Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, draw each of us under Thy veil; guard me and shield me against all attacks and temptations that would violate the virtue of chastity.

Lord Jesus Christ, I beg Thee for the grace to remain guarded beneath the protective mantle of Mary, surrounded by the holy briar from which was taken the Holy Crown of Thorns, and saturated with Thy Precious Blood in the power of the Holy Spirit, with our Guardian Angels for the greater glory of the Father. Amen.