When the Veil Thins: Stories for Samhain

As the veil thins and the year turns toward darkness, we instinctively reach for stories — the strange, the magical, the forgotten. Samhain invites us to look back: at the histories that shaped us, the myths that haunt us, and the mysteries we still chase.

Here are some articles that explore witchcraft, folklore, and the supernatural from every angle: academic, historical, and delightfully uncanny.

Connecticut’s growing witch community — and the witch crawl bringing them together

Forget broomsticks and Hollywood curses. Modern witchcraft bears little resemblance to the movies. Today’s practitioners define their craft in wildly different ways, blending ritual, spirituality, intuition, and personal empowerment. Read the full article here

5 Spooky Places With Witchy Histories for Halloween

Witches have haunted human imagination for as long as we’ve told stories — from wise healers and midwives to whispered rumors of women who cursed their enemies and danced with demons. This article tours some of the world’s spookiest witchy locations, where myth, history, and mystery overlap.

Read the full article here

Exploring witchcraft and folklore in County Durham’s archives

From ghostly river spirits to serpent-slaying legends, the folklore of northern England is rich in mystery and macabre magic. These once-whispered tales live on today in The Story, Durham County’s archive, which preserves centuries of strange and supernatural history. Read the full article here

The spooky origins of our modern Halloween rituals

Long before Halloween became costumes and candy, Celtic peoples marked the turning of the year with Samhain — a fire-festival honoring the dead and the coming winter. Celebrated for over 2,000 years, Samhain is the true ancestor of modern Halloween. Read the full article here

Exploring the supernatural in world religions

At Ohio University, one class is leaning all the way into spooky season. “Global Occult” delves into ghosts, demonology, witchcraft, and the paranormal across world religions, exploring the strange, magical, and mystical corners of belief that most classes often overlook. Read the full article here

Printing presses once spread witch hunts, just as algorithms amplify misinformation today

The witch hunts weren’t fueled by superstition alone — they went viral. From 1400 to 1780, the printing press spread manuals like Malleus Maleficarum, teaching readers how to spot and punish witches. It became the 15th-century equivalent of a conspiracy theory going viral.

This article draws a sharp line from those presses to today’s social media algorithms, proving that misinformation has always had its megaphone. Read the full article here

From potion to prescription: how witches’ herbs became medical marvels

Every Halloween, the usual suspects crawl out of the cauldron: belladonna, mandrake, mugwort — the plants whispered to give witches their power. But these “spooky botanicals” weren’t just props for midnight rituals. They were potent medicines, dangerous hallucinogens, and pharmacological game-changers long before modern science caught up.

This article peels back the folklore to reveal the very real chemistry behind the myth and why some of these plants still show up in today’s medicine cabinets. Read the full article here

The Conspiracist Cotton Mather

The zealot who oversaw the Salem Witch Trials initially voiced restraint—what changed?

When accusations of witchcraft began to swirl through Salem in 1692, Cotton Mather — the firebrand Puritan minister we usually associate with the trials — did something unexpected: he begged the magistrates to slow down. In a tense letter to his friend Judge John Richards, Mather warned that relying on “spectral evidence” (ghosts pointing fingers, essentially) was a dangerous road. His plea went unheeded, and hysteria took over.

More than three centuries later, the article argues, that same hunger for invisible enemies still haunts us — from QAnon to Satanic Panic. Different century. Same conspiratorial fire. Read the full article here

In Closing,

As the last leaves fall and the nights grow long, may these stories remind you that the strange and the sacred live side by side. Samhain is not only a time for ghosts and old gods, but it is a time

For remembering.

For listening.

For standing in the doorway between what has been and what is yet to come.

If one of these stories stirred something — a memory, a curiosity, a question — I’d love to hear it. Drop your thoughts in the comments, or share your favorite witchy legend or Samhain tradition. Let’s keep the storytelling alive.

Blessed Samhain, and may the veil reveal exactly what you’re ready to see.