Out of the Blue

Out of the Blue © Redvixen 2008



Well, that's exactly how it happened, out of the blue.  It was Halloween or Samhain as we witches call it and as it is one of our four major sabbats, like all good witches I had just taken my ritual bath, dressed in my special robe and was preparing my ritual.



I had poured the wine into a lovely crystal goblet that I keep on my altar for just such an occasion and cut the cake up into small pieces and placed them on my glass plate.  I lit the altar candles, black for the God and white for the Goddess.  I was drinking mugwort tea, which is made from the herb, mugwort, and is a popular herb used by witches and wiccans, and humming softly under my breath.  I lit my incense sticks; this particular night I was burning patchouli to help promote my psychic powers. 



When I do a ritual I always cast a magick circle with my athame (an athame is a double edged ritual knife that is not used to cut anything, but is an extension of my right arm and hand through which I direct my power and energy) to create time out of time, a sacred space into which I can do my work protected, for the same reason I call the quarters, the guardians of the Air in the East, Water in the West, Fire in the South and Earth in the North.  Next I call upon the presence of both the Goddess and the God to be witness to my rite and ritual and so my ceremony began.



My cat had wandered into my circle to see what I was up to.  Cats always sense a build up of energy and he often wanders into my circle and curls up and purrs contentedly.  Cats of course are very sensitive creatures and when he suddenly jumped to his feet and arched his back and began hissing and staring at something I couldn't see, I was quite alarmed.



I raised my athame and pointed it in the direction of the West where Riley was still hissing, wide-eyed and frightened.



"I call upon you, unseen spirit to be gone from this sacred space into which, you have not been invited!" I made my voice as steady as I could.

"Be gone!" I cried again, as the cat still stared fixedly.



Then the strangest thing happened, right there in front of us a blue mist began to swirl and rise from the ground and out of the mist a figure of a man began to emerge.  The cat made a leap for the windowsill and hid himself behind the curtains, peeping out wide-eyed and trembling now.  I stood my ground but mainly because I felt rooted to the spot and unable to move, I too was shaking visibly.



The man was tall, at least six feet and wore a long, blue cloak that covered him from shoulder to ankle, he had a pale skin and long dark hair tied back from his face with a black ribbon.  His skin had a strange blue tinge to it and his eyes where dark black unfathomable pools.  I was really frightened now, I knew that at Samhain the veil between the worlds was at its thinnest and that this was the time that our ancestors could come through and manifest themselves and commune with us, but I had never actually seen anyone before, oh I had felt quite strong presences and always benign ones but this figure was decidedly sinister.  I knew I had to be strong and maintain my faith in the power I had summoned, my belief in my Lady and Lord would keep me safe I was sure.



"I call upon all the powers I have summoned, stirred and called to remove you from my circle," my voice sounded strong even to my ears.



The man or spirit or whatever he was took a step back and raised a hand as if to stop me.  It was covered in a heavy black, leather gauntlet.



"Please, I mean you no harm," the voice was surprisingly gentle.

I lowered my athame a little.

"Who are you and what do you want?" I demanded.

"I am what you would call a spirit, a ghost, an entity, " he replied and gave me a courteous bow, "I saw the energy and light of your circle, the wine and cakes on the altar, it looked...." he paused

"Looked what?" I prompted.

"So warm, so alive, so inviting" he replied, "please may I just sit and witness your ritual just for a few minutes?" his voice was wistful and filled with a nameless longing.



I thought for a moment, and then mentally asked the Goddess for a sign of what I should do.  Riley the cat jumped down and began weaving in and out of the stranger's legs, purring loudly.  The blue spirit man smiled.



"Your Goddess has given you a sign I think"

"It would seem so, well you had better sit down," I replied, feeling uneasy at the thought that this ghost could probably read my mind!



He did as I bid him and I continued with my ritual at first feeling self-conscious, but inevitably the raising of energy took me off into a trance like state and when I got to the part of the ritual where we toast the Old Ones, our ancestors from the burning times and beyond, I turned to him to offer the cup of wine only to find that he had gone as mysteriously as he had appeared, just a few wisps of blue mist were evaporating into the air and my cat, Riley was curled up fast asleep.



I finished the ritual and thanked the Goddess and God for their protection and when they and the quarters took their leave and I closed the circle, I was left to wonder on the mystery of the “Blue Man” whose name I had not discovered.  Well in fact I had discovered very little about him.  How fear paralyses us human beings I thought, I could have asked him all sorts of questions and yet I had not, I had just allowed a stranger, a real stranger, certainly not of human kind, to share my space for maybe half an hour.  Every Samhain, I await his return wondering if he will come out of the blue again, maybe he will and maybe he won’t but next time I will not be so afraid and I will definitely find out more about him!  Damn my human frailties!



Word Count 1108