Beans for Dead People, pt. 1

Spooky season is upon us and though the AC is on full blast right now, it’s starting to, sort of…almost, feel like Fall. Tomatoes are waning and soon the reign of hard squashes and citrus (tequila everywhere rejoices) will be upon us. Until then, it’s time to eat the last of the sungolds and pile Trader Joe’s pumpkins on the front porch in hopes they won’t rot before Halloween. 

I’m all for this month’s commercialized spooky stuff (Hocus Pocus is a canon event worth returning to year after year), but I try to take time for the real magic this season holds too— the diminishing light, the thinning veil, the quiet, the vulnerability, the deaths and transformations. In an effort to hold these juxtaposing magics at the same time, on October 31st, I celebrate Halloween and Samhain (pronounced Saw-win). Halloween, because candy is good and costumes are fun, not to mention the camaraderie around things grim and gory. Samhain, for the rituals and connection to the ancestral plane. 

With kids in …