Tonight is Walpurgisnacht, the eve of Beltane, also called Cetshamain--half Samhain, a sort of opposite of Halloween, as we are on the other side of the year (up north that is). Tomorrow starts the first day of the Celtic summer.
In Germany, it is the eve of St. Walpurgis' Day; supposedly, the witches would gather around Bald Mountain and hold their "unholy sabbats."
Today is also the day that Anton LeVey supposedly shaved his head and started his brand of Satanism.
And so, in honor of this bewitching day, I leave thee with this:
First Witch
Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
Second Witch
Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.
Third Witch
Harpier cries: 'T is time, 't is time.
First Witch
Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.
All
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Second Witch
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
All
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Third Witch
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.
All
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Second Witch
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
(Enter Hecate.)
Hecate
O! well done! I commend your pains,
And every one shall share i' the gains.
And now about the cauldron sing,
Like elves and fairies in a ring,
Enchanting all that you put in.
(Music, and a Song, 'Black spirits,' and company.)
Second Witch
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks.
--of course, MacBeth