As Halloween rolls closer, Carbondale becomes a hotbed of controversy. Two topics become increasingly important to people this time of year:1.) the crazy college parties and 2.) how some people believe evil is strongest now. I’m going to get an early start on one of these controversies, and it’s not the party scene.

I am a witch, and come this Halloween I will not be slamming beers or rolling cars. I, along with my close friends and fellow local pagans, will be dancing, chanting and drumming around a sacred fire while helping those already gone from this plane on to the next phase. I will be contacting my ancestors and wishing them well on their journeys while asking for their wisdom for this life time. I will worship the earth as she falls into slumber. I will reap the final harvest and store it for the long winter.

Halloween, or as pagans call it Samhain, is not an evil holiday. At the most simple level it is the final harvest. This is the time of year when farmers collect the rest of their crops and prepare for winter. For pagans this time of year is the beginning of the new year, the turning of the wheel, and the next cycle in life.

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Halloween is the night in which the veil between our world that of the mundane and the realm of the dead is the thinnest. This is a good time for spirit work and ancestor worship. It is a time of great power and energy and of necessary respect.

I speak of these things loud and true, for there are many misconceptions about this holiday and Pagans and witches in general. There will be no sacrifices, there will be no harm, and there will be no evil.

Paganism, witchcraft and many other religions often dismissed as faddish, evil or wrong are none of these things. We are all worshipping our ideas of divinity. I see divine energy in the earth, sky and sun as both male and female. And I worship these deities on holidays like Samhain.

There are many of us out there, all trying to worship our way, in peace. May you have a happy, and spirit-full Halloween.