Kristoffer Hughes
I don’t believe that the visible and invisible worlds are necessarily aware of each other. For awareness and communication to occur, we must do something that causes the divide between the two worlds to collide and subsequently thin. In Pagan practice we have a name for such a method—ritual. The Wheel of the Year itself can act as a moderator of this function, and within its liminal phases, we are able to work with liminality to bridge the chasm between the seen and unseen, the living and the dead. Samhain is one such liminal time, a time between times. Ritual helps us to psychologically prepare and magically connect with otherworldly forces. Within the practices of secular Halloween we can see elements of this that far exceed the understanding of children and adults in fancy costume and attire. The current Halloween rites embody, albeit on a subconscious level, a sacred exchange between the visible and invisible worlds.
If you are reading these words anywhere other than England and Wales, you may never have heard of the word Punkie. And yet, within that rather peculiar word swims centuries of tradition and practice that is inexorably tied to the Halloween traditions of the secular world and also the Samhain practices of modern Pagans. The Punkie, or Spunkie, as it was called in some of England’s southwest counties, is essentially a jack-o’-lantern, albeit significantly smaller in stature, but what it lacks in grandeur and sheer size it certainly makes up for in character.
Whilst the magnificent pumpkin has become the primary symbol of Halloween in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, its ancestor is in fact the Punkie, and its history is as colorful as Halloween itself. In olden times the Punkie formed the traditional lantern used by guisers and mummers during the dark nights of Halloween and was carved from a varied selection of native British root vegetables. These ranged from turnips, to swedes (rutabagas) to the peculiar root called a mangel-wurzel! These root vegetables, whilst harder and tougher to carve than the giant pumpkin of North America, were hollowed out and carved with hideous features in the guise of spirits and goblins.
The tradition of Punkie’s would see children wander from door to door in their locality whilst singing the following verse:
It’s Punkie night, it’s Punkie night,
Give us a candle, give us a light,
If ‘ee don’t, we’ll give ‘ee a fright.
A sagacious household would offer treats in return for the song, and thus prevent any mischief or tricks being played upon themselves or their homes. Whilst it is tempting to assume a connection, it must be said that the similarity between this tradition and the modern trick-or-treat tradition is tenuous, but who knows—it may have all started with a humble vegetable!
The function of the lanterns were twofold: on one hand they represented shades of the dead, whilst simultaneously acting as protective devices. The necessity for protection during the dark part of the year may be somewhat alien to us in our brightly lit, heated homes, with supermarket shelves busting with year-round produce, but to our ancestors the winter posed a real threat. Not only did they fear recompense from the shades of the dead, they feared for their own lives and well-being during the harsh winter months.
This simple ritual will connect you to the ages-old practice of the Punkie lantern, whilst simultaneously honor the dead and protect your home from negativity during the 3 nights of Samhain.
Items Needed
3 tall black dinner or taper candles
3 suitable candle holders
1 circle made of card
1 large rutabaga (also called a swede or a turnip in commonwealth countries)
Tea light candles
Permanent marker pen
1 sharp knife
Strong ice cream scoop
Pencil
If you are able, try and perform the following ritual in one session. Have all the tools and equipment listed above in the same room. Create or delineate sacred space as you would ordinarily do.
Identify a suitable windowsill in your home that can be cleared of all items and redecorated for this ritual. Prepare the sill by decorating it with fabric and other seasonal accoutrements, leaving enough space for the Punkie to take central position with three candles around it: one to its left, another to its right, and one behind it. Be sensible with your decor, there will be a living flame on the sill!
Take a piece of stiff black card and cut it into a circle approximately 8 inches in diameter; personally I use a slate coaster of the same size I found in a market. You could also use a slice of wood, or anything else that you may have about your possessions.
Take three deep breaths, one with the land, one with the sky, and one with the seas that surround you, and bring to mind the gorse bush or furze; this small evergreen shrub covered in yellow flowers that has a distinctive coconut aroma is sacred in Celtic traditions for its protective qualities.
To aid your visualization, use a search engine to find an image of the shrub. Now draw the symbol on your card or whatever other material you have chosen to use. The symbol can be as large or small as you fancy and as elaborately or as simply drawn as your abilities and skills dictate. Consider protective qualities as you draw, imbuing the symbol with your intent and will. Position the card centrally on the windowsill. This will form a base upon which your Punkie will stand.
Now take the rutabaga and consider it closely, find its potential countenance, and with a pencil draw a face that you will subsequently carve. With your knife, slice the root end of the rutabaga to form a flat surface on which it will stand. Now take your knife to the opposite end and cut off a lid, as you would with a pumpkin. The next bit is tricky, for the rutabaga is significantly harder to carve, but who said that magic is easy? With your knife, cut crisscross lines into the body of the root, and scoop out the flesh with your ice cream scoop. You must do this slowly and methodically, avoiding going to close to the edge. Go as deep as you can to create enough of a space to hold a tea light candle and to illuminate the design of your Punkie’s features.
Once hollowed to your satisfaction, carve out the Punkie’s features. Your Punkie is now almost ready to serve as a protective device and to honor the dead with its ghostly light. But first you must inform it of its duty. Take another three deep breaths and kneel or position yourself as close to the Punkie’s open lid as you can. Say these words:
Breath of my breath, warm thy breath
Take a deep breath and exhale loudly into the Punkie’s innards, visualizing as you do the vitality of your expression flowing into the Punkie and out through its mouth. Repeat this three times.
Now take the Punkie and hold it in front of you, face-to-face, consider it, does it have a name, what personality traits can you glean from its features? As you look at each other repeat these words:
Root from deep within the earth,
Arise now, come to me and serve,
Keep me and mine from harm and strife,
Root of earth now to come to life!
Place the Punkie on the card on the windowsill, and whilst turning it round three times repeat the above spell again. Sit or position yourself so that you can once again be face-to-face, and place the candle into your Punkie and repeat the spell above for a third and final time before lighting the tea light candle. Carefully place the Punkie’s lid back onto its body, but be aware that you may need cocktail sticks to secure it firmly. What you will notice is that the flame will slightly cook the lid and create the most delicious smell. If the rutabaga is small, you may need to create a chimney in the lid to allow heat to escape.
Position the candle sticks on the windowsill in a wide triangular formation, with the center candle being nearest the window and behind the Punkie.
Take another three deep breaths and light the candle to the left whilst considering the recent dead. Say these or similar words:
I honor you with glowing light, here upon this Samhain night,
Spirits from the other-side, cross now the great divide
After a few minutes, light the candle behind the Punkie and consider the ancient dead of your family, tribe, or culture, and repeat the verse above. Minutes later light the last candle and bring to mind your deceased pets and those who have died by effect of war, its collateral damage, or who have died in service to their countries. Repeat the words of the spell, and sit in quiet contemplation whilst gazing at the three candles and the glowing face of the Punkie.
Finally turn your Punkie to face the outside world, visualizing its light destroying any negativity directed at your home, move the central candle so that it is now positioned behind the Punkie.
Repeat the candle lighting sequence for each of the three nights of Samhain, and ensure that your Punkie remains lit and facing outward for the duration. Rather than risk fire, place a battery-operated tea light into the Punkie when you retire to bed. Note that a Punkie will not last as long as a pumpkin lantern. Boil and mash the rutabaga’s innards with potato, some milk, and butter and serve during the festivities.
The rite is done. Open your space as you would ordinarily do.
When Samhain is over, thank your Punkie and compost it, telling it that he or she can return next year to keep your home safe over the festive period.