The magic of working with Pumpkins

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Autumn is a magical time, perfect for witchcraft, as we approach the latter half of the year and the long, dark, cold, months of Winter drawing near. In witchcraft we use many things in our lives as tools for our spell work from nature or our home, like one of the most popular symbols and flavors of fall; Pumpkins. Pumpkins are synonymous with the autumn season we see them everywhere; especially around Halloween / Samhain and carrying through the month of November until Thanksgiving here in the USA. But, Pumpkins and gourds have been used for centuries in magic though as a form of protection, a connection to abundance and fertility, a boost to love and more. Let’s take a look at the biggest fruit, full of seeds of potential inside, who takes center stage during the spooky and fall season; the pumpkin in this blogpost.

Pumpkins what are they?

The pumpkin, Cucurbita pepo, is a type of Winter Squash though technically it is classified as a berry! The name pumpkin originated from the Greek word Pepõn, which means large melon. Most pumpkins are typically large, round and ribbed and of a distinctive orange color. However, they can also be white, green, yellow and other shades depending on the cultivar, as there are 3 or 4 different kinds of pumpkins overall. Harvested in October, this nutritious and versatile orange fruit features flowers, seeds and flesh that are edible and rich in vitamins. The pumpkin, though popular in many places throughout the world today, is native to North America and Mexico and has been cultivated since at least 7000 BCE. They were even a common crop to be planted and grown before beans and corn.

Medicinal properties of Pumpkins

Rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, pumpkins aren’t just the most popular fall flavor and a common witches’ tool set out on our front doorsteps but, they are incredibly healthy for us as well. Pumpkins are loaded with nutrients that can boost your immune system and help you stay healthy like vitamin C, E, and A. Pumpkins are also high in carotenoids, which are compounds that can function as antioxidants and some believe may help protect against certain cancers like, stomach, throat, pancreas and breast cancers. The health benefits keep rolling in with them being high in potassium, vitamin C and fiber, which have been linked to having heart benefits. Plus these popular fruits can help you stay looking younger since they are loaded with nutrients that are great for your skin. Pumpkin seeds can also help boost your mood. They contain tryptophan which helps boost serotonin.

Magical themes of Pumpkins

In witchcraft every single ingredient and tool we use in our spells and rituals has magical themes and energies it can align with and be used for. Pumpkins are no different. They can be used in spells, rituals, or charms to enhance your fertility, boost your manifestation, and connect you to the gratitude of the harvest. They can be utilized to attract wealth, success, and opportunities for financial growth. Don’t forget the most common magical use of all; calling on them to aid in protecting your home and guarding your threshold. Take a look below for some more themes you can use pumpkins for in your magical workings, spells, and rituals. . Don’t forget you can use all parts of the pumpkin too! Especially the seeds for potent fertility spell workings.

Protection
Divination
Prosperity
Healing
Good health
Death
The harvest
Gratitude
Abundance
Good luck
The dead
Love and matters of the heart
Fertility
Transformation

Pumpkins in myths and lore

Pumpkins are a true symbol of Autumn and spooky season, most likely because, that’s when they are harvested. We’ve also seen them as part of Fall and spooky season festivals and celebrations for thousands of years across cultures especially during Samhain. Below are a few myths and common lore we have involving pumpkins.

The Origin of carving pumpkins

The act of carving faces into a vegetable originates with the Scots and Irish but they didn’t carve pumpkins in ancient times, they carved vegetables like turnips or potatoes. Later on, after the Scotts-Irish migrated to the New World, they brought their Samhain traditions with them but, started to use the native fruit of the land pumpkins instead. The frightening faces carved into pumpkins were thought to serve as guardians. People believe these glowing, eerie faces could scare away malevolent and confused spirits, and other dark entities, keeping homes safe during the Samhain season when the veil is pulled back from the other side.

The origin of the Jack o lantern

The term Jack o lantern actually originated in England and is linked to a supernatural phenomenon called Ignis Fatuus or “foolish fire”. This is an eerie, spectral light that sort of bobbs and dances. It seduces people off the beaten path and often to their death. In addition to the jack o’ lantern being a spook light, the name also has a couple legends behind it and refers to a character or man named jack or stingy jack who made a deal with the devil. Because of this deal with the devil, he is not permitted to go to Heaven or Hell and is doomed to wander the earth forever with a glowing carved turnip ( now pumpkin) as his head.. And apparently he amuses himself and passes the time by leading people to their doom down dark and haunted paths on Halloween night.

Other mentionings of pumpkins

According to a Huron creation story, pumpkins arose when a divine woman died in childbirth. All of the plants necessary for life sprang up from her body: Beans grew from her legs, corn sprang from her body, and pumpkin vines grew from her head.

In religions that sprang from the Africa, pumpkins are associated with several major deities, particularly Oshun and Shango. Oshun is a goddess of rivers, love, and fertility, which echoes the connections between pumpkins, the element of Water, and the concepts of fertility and abundance as seen in other cultures and traditions.

Duality and Pumpkins

Since, I am a grey witch I look for the duality in every single energy I work with including the tools and spell ingredients I use. Pumpkins are full of duality in the properties they represent and energies they allow us to work with. On one hand they are a symbol of prosperity and abundance. Connecting us to the unlimited and generous flow of abundance calling it INTO our lives. While on the other hand they connect us to the energy of death and protection. Being a common symbol sitting at our front doors protecting our homes and threshold by keeping unwanted entities and spirits OUT.

We can’t forget that the most popular time to work with this tool is in the fall when they are being harvested and there are plenty to go around. The fall season is a really unique pocket of liminal space and time for us to connect to duality. We get to be surrounded by the bounty and abundance of the fall harvest and all the joy, celebration and gratitude that brings. While we are also confronted with the reality of nature beginning to die around us and the dark cold winter that is very soon going to be upon us.

Correspondences for the Pumpkin

First, what is a correspondence? A correspondence is an item or symbol that is meant to connect you to a specific energy thru it’s representation. It is seen also as an item to respect, honor, and venerate that energy as well whether it be a deity, an archetype energy, the zodiac energy the moon is currently or for a magical tool/ fruit the pumpkin, which I will list below for you to use. Remember this is just a start to the list for you. You can use any correspondences that connect the magical themes and energies of the pumpkin. Just follow your intuition on what you choose to work with!

Planet- moon
Gender- feminine
Day-Monday
Element- water and Earth
Crystals-Orange calcite, citrine, pyrite, heliodore, moonstone, onyx, obsidian,
colors-oranges, whites, reds, yellow, greens
Deities-Oshun, Nicneven, Priapus, Woden, Osris, Loki, Persephone, Cerrunnos, Dionysus, lady hel, lakshmi, hades, Saraswati, hekate, Janus, Anubis, fide, The Morrígan,Parvati, Shango
Holidays- Lughnasadh, Diana’s Festival, Mabon, Samhain, the fall harvest, Alfablot
Zodiac-Virgo, Capricorn, Taurus, Scorpio

Ways to work with the pumpkin

We’ve talked a lot about pumpkins in this post so far, including the magical themes associated with them. Those themes are the energies we can connect to with Pumpkins. They are how we can use them to build our spells and rituals. You have many options on how you want to include them in your spells and rituals and many different ways to work with them. Below you will find a list I put together of some ideas for spells, rituals, and ways you can work with them using the themes and magic we can harvest in each rounded and fruitful one.

Use their seeds as a spell ingredient for potent fertility spells in spell packets, spell jars, offerings at altars and more
Save their stems and grind them up to add to wish spells and manifestation magic
Abundance magic
Carve the pumpkin in a scary face and use it as a protection spell for samhain
Use the pumpkin in kitchen magic making pies, cakes, soups or drinks as abundance and fertility spells or to bless your home and hearth
Add a candle to the inside of a carved out pumpkin and use it for fire scrying
Carve sigils of protection and blessings in them and add them to your altar, hearth, or front door
Add them to your Samhain altar for your ancestors to represent death and transformation
Write an intention or goal for the spring and bury it in the ground with some seeds for them to grow in the spring
Write something you wish to release and let die and bury in the ground with old pumpkins to allow them to be released to the earth
Place 7 pumpkin seeds into a green spell bag or packet and place it in your wallet or purse and carry it around to attract prosperity
Paint an Algiz, Uruz, or Tyr rune on a pumpkin and place by the front door for protection during the Samhain season
Visit a pumpkin patch to soak up the abundance and fertility of the land they grow from
Carve a heart and the person’s name you love into the bottom of the pumpkin then light a red candle inside to attract their love into your life
Use them as portal magic when the veil is thinned during Samhain
Give them as offerings for graveyard magic or to deities of the dead
Hold a small pumpkin while working on balancing and aligning your sacral chakra
Get 3 smaller pumpkins and paint or carve symbols of fertility on them. Then mediate while focusing on them and thinking about what you would like to bring into life
Take a carved pumpkin and place a wish written on a bay leaf inside the pumpkin and bury it in the ground before sunrise

Pumpkin Scrying with water

There are countless forms of divination across the Earth using many different tools. Pumpkins can be powerful tools for divination, particularly in the practice of scrying due to their connection to transformation. Scrying is a form of divination that involves gazing into a reflective or translucent surface to receive visions or insights. Using pumpkins for scrying combines the seasonal magic of autumn with ancient divination practices.

How to perform pumpkin scrying

Hollow Out the Pumpkin- Cut off the top of the pumpkin and scoop out the seeds and pulp. Save the seeds for fertility magic spells for later
Smooth the Interior- Scrape the interior walls until they are smooth.
Create a Reflective Surface- place a small mirror at the bottom of the pumpkin before adding water. This enhances the reflective quality of the water.

Fill the Pumpkin with Water-Pour clean water into the hollowed-out pumpkin, filling it to about three-quarters full.
Create sacred container- Do this in any way that works for you but, I recommned lighting black and white candles and setting them around the pumpkin to enhance the reflection

Gaze into the Water-Look into the surface of the water, allowing your gaze to soften. Don’t force any images to appear; simply observe and remain open to any visions or impressions.
Interpret Your Visions-Take note of any shapes, symbols, or scenes that appear in the water. Trust your intuition to interpret their meanings.

Samhain Pumpkin Protection Spell

Like we talked about above pumpkins were thought to be used as very strong symbols of protection during the fall especially when the veil was it’s thinnest during Samhain. While the veil is pulled back and entities, spirits, and the dead walk among us and come out to play. Don’t forget to protect your threshold. Making sure only those you wish to cross it on that hallowed eve are the ones who can.
Try this protection spell using a carved pumpkin on that night to give those unwanted spirits ghosts and entities a fright! I will even pull this spell out during different times of the year if my home ends up with an increased about of spirit activity for some reason.

What you will need:

A carved pumpkin, white candles, bay leaves, rosemary, sage, coriander, cloves

How to perform:

First take your white candles and set them in your pumpkin envisioning them bringing protection and being the guardian of your home this hallowed night. Next add your herbs of protection and connection to the dead to your pumpkin leaving out the bay leaves. Then take your bay leaves and add them one by one while saying out loud the names of the passed loved ones you would like to be able to cross your threshold and enter your home this hollowed night. After that take the top and with a deep breath seal the spell inside. Knowing this pumpkin will be the one now to decide who will come into your home on this hallowed night.

Kitchen Magic; Baking a pumpkin pie to bless your home

Kitchen magic is a very powerful type of magic that fills up the walls of your home. Allowing you to bless those you love while you can also create memories together and then fill their bellies with food. One common item to be baking right now especially with Thanksgiving at the end of this month when families will gather for a meal is a pumpkin pie. The entire process of making and baking the pie becomes a magical ritual. The spices used have their own magic properties helping you create your spell. You can then draw sigils or symbols in the pie crust before baking to add more magic and blessings for those you choose to serve it too.

Pumpkin Prosperity spell

Pumpkins are a significant sign of abundance and fertility for the fall. Think about when you cut open a pumpkin, it’s absolutely packed with seeds, each representing the possibility of new life and expansion. They can also be used to represent long term abundance as pumpkins can be kept for a long time before they start to decay. Another reason why they are plentiful for the fall harvest during this time right now. Try this prosperity spell using the very fertile and abundant pumpkin and watch your money flow get so much richer.

What you will need:
A piece of pumpkin
3 bag leaves
A pen
A piece of twine
A dollar bill
7 pumpkins
Cinnamon- abundance
Sugar- to sweeten the results and add speed
Rosemary-connection the dead
Basil-abundance/wealth
Nutmeg-abundance

How to perform:
Get yourself into sacred container focusing your energy and breath on abundance, prosperity and what it feels like to have more than all your needs met.
Then take your piece of pumpkin and sprinkle each one of your herbs on the entire thing continuously focusing on abundance and prosperity.
Next take your bay leaves and write the dollar amount you wish to receive on each of the three.
Take your pumpkin piece in your hand and as you envision that dollar amount coming to you freely grab it, the dollar bill and your three leaves and use the twine to bind and wrap the money to you and your family securely around your bright golden piece of pumpkin.
Once securely tied with the magic of a binding knot and your hand go outside somewhere you can bury it into the land. When you have your spot take your spell in your hand and recite out loud as you bury it into the ground.
” Pumpkin, pumpkin tightly bound bring your prosperity to me from the ground.
Pumpkin, pumpkin rich and bright bring this prosperity to me day and night.”

Now watch the money amount you requested begin to flow to you and your home.

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