Are you getting your altars ready for Samhain? If you'd like to share a photo with the rest of our readers, you can send it in as a jpg file, and I'll create a Samhain Altar Photo Gallery for the site. For information on how you can submit your pic, read here: How to Submit Your Altar Photo. Remember, don't send me photos of altars that aren't yours, because I can't use them. Also, any file attachments sent to any email address other than the one on the submission page will be deleted without being opened.

Not sure what should go on a Samhain altar? Read up on Setting Up Your Samhain Altar.

Got a photo of your altar from another Sabbat? Send it in, and I'll add your pic to one of these:

• Imbolc Altar Gallery
• Ostara Altar Gallery
• Beltane Altar Gallery
• Litha Altar Gallery
• Lammas Altar Gallery
• Mabon Altar Gallery

It's October, and that means you can't go too many places without seeing pumpkins, at least if you live in North America. They're everywhere, and often they're carved into scary, silly or elaborate images. But really, let's think about this -- it's a big fat vegetable. Where on earth did we get the idea of carving faces on them? Learn more about these tasty yet fun members of the squash family: Jack O'Lanterns.

I hardly even know where to begin with this one, but I'll give it a shot. George Ann Mills, a Voodoo priestess from South Carolina says she was hired by a Georgia county commissioner to work some magic on a political rival -- in fact, Mills says the commissioner, Annette Kesting, asked Mills to perform a death ritual on her opponent. And then, Mills says, Kesting wrote checks that her bank refused to cash due to insufficient funds.

Mills says she "refused to perform the “death ritual” but did perform others intended to help Kesting’s family and financial situation." After checks totalling $3,000 bounced in September, she contacted the police in Cobb County, Georgia, where Kesting is commissioner. The police report says that Mills first had a visit from Kestin in August, and that Kesting wanted her long-time rival Woody Thompson to “catch cancer” or “have a car accident.”

Mills tells reporters that she has asked the gods to help Kesting, and has sacrificed three hens and a rooster as part of cleansing rituals for the Cobb County commissioner. “I am still trying to help her out because I am a priestess,” Mills said.

Kesting's attorney, however, has a slightly different story to tell. He says his client has never even met Mills, let alone paid her any money. In fact, he says she's never had anything to do with any "priestess, witch doctor or palm reader," and that this might be all part of a big conspiracy to defame Kesting, who recently lost to Thompson in the Democratic primary for Cobb County Commission.

Mills has been in prison several times and has been convicted of dozens of counts of writing fraudulent checks, according to law enforcement records.

From the Oakland Daily Trib, there's a story about an adult education student who called his teacher a witch, chanted religious verses, and then poured a liquid over her before trying to set her on fire with a lighter. The 20-year-old suspect told police that he was trying to "purify" the teacher, who had been doing a unit on Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible.

The teacher, who not only says she isn't a witch, but also says she doesn't even believe in witchcraft, had explained to the students that the events in the play were a metaphor for unjust persecution. Officials say, "The suspect threw his homework papers on the floor and declared it was all blasphemy... The next day he came up behind her chanting what sounded like religious verses while she was working at her desk."

Detectives say that the suspect, Darin Najor, poured "holy water" on the teacher, and then stood there waving a green barbeque lighter, saying he was going to "burn the witch." Najor was arrested and is being charged with assault and battery, but is currently free on bond.

Oh, and he's been expelled from school.