Samhain

Celebrating nature's cycles; Samhain the time of darkness and the thinning of the veil.

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Dear ones,

Welcome to Samhain, a very powerful time of the year! This post is part of a series based on the sabbats/celebrations from the Celtic Wheel of the Year! At the end is a Samhain ritual and recorded meditation. Enjoy.

Welcome to Samhain

Samhain collage by me

We are drawing upon the time of Samhain, (pronounced “SOW in”). The Celtic/Pagan new year that heralds in the dark half of the year. A time of honoring our ancestors, where the veil between the physical world and the spirit world thins.

In Ireland and Scotland, the Cailleach (pronounced "kal-yakh”) has awoken. She is the Hag, Crone, the Dark Mother, who watches over this stretch of time. Caring for the womb that is the earth till the light returns at Imbolc, the time of Brigid. Similar to where I live, coldness is spreading across the land. Nature’s rhythm is slowing down. The ebbing to the flowing.

Annual crops are dying back, claimed by the changing of seasons to now return to the soil. My garden is doing the same. While mostly wilting and withering, some cilantro seeds have found root and are sprouting for one last crop. Deciduous trees all around are shedding their leaves, first with a glorious burst of color then with a natural relinquishment becoming mulch to protect the seeds till spring. Further north it is already snowing.

Death is in the air. Not as a morbid thing or something that needs to be hidden and cleaned up. Impermanence, change and mortality are natural movements of life. We see this right now in the sagging, shriveling, decaying, and rotting. This is the time of waning. Darkness is upon us.

Life is easier when we release into this rather than needing to conquer it. Remembering that these physical animal bodies of ours will eventually return to the soil too. An invitation to truly meet death before our own bodies die.

Samhain is such a time! The curtain is porous, this sacred liminal space where life and death touch. An invitation to acknowledge our own mortality and to honor the loved ones that have gone before us. Let this period of growing darkness, invite a mystical and magical contemplation of death, life, cycles, nature and the inherent wisdom that moves within it, as it all.

In the southern hemisphere, blessed Beltane to you! May your fires burn brightly!

SAMHAIN

My Samhain altar from last year

Samhain is the first of the eight sabbats that cycle within the year. The first of four major celebrations that surround the midpoint between the equinoxes and solstices. Samhain is considered the most significant celebration because it is beginning of winter and the Pagan/Celtic/Witches New Year.

Samhain is typically celebrated over several days. In the southern hemisphere Samhain is late April and early May. In the northern hemisphere the key days around this are: 
* October 31st, All Hallows’ Eve also known as Halloween. 
* November 1st, All Saints Day (Christian observance). 
* November 2nd, All Souls Day (Christian observance). 
* Oct. 31st - Nov. 2nd, The Day of the Dead (el Día de los Muertos).
* Oct. 31st - Nov. 2nd, Samhain, the Celtic New Year & Festival of the Dead.
* November 7th, Astronomical time, midpoint between the fall equinox & winter solstice.

Samhain is a fire festival where people would gather around bonfires in appreciation and gratitude of the final harvest. Communities of old would share food and celebrate. Each, then taking a flame from this collective fire home to light their own hearths.

Mostly Samhain is known for the Festival of the Dead. A time of remembrance, paying tribute to our ancestors and communicating with them. In olden times many feared the demons and evil spirits that also had access during the opening of the veil. They would dress up as ghouls to confuse them. Here we see the beginning origins of Halloween.

The Witches’ New Year is an opportunity to connect with the natural and supernatural realms. Samhain isn’t necessarily a creepy, morbid holiday obsessed with death. Death instead is honored and respected as a significant aspect of nature’s rhythms and as the eternal link we have with our ancestors and the ones that have gone before us.

CAILLEACH

This is a card from my oracle deck, Wisdom of the Cailleach, by Jane Brideson.

Samhain is when An Cailleach rises again to roam the terrains. The Cailleach (pronounced "kal-yakh”) is the old Crone, the woman who transforms the land. Associated with thundery storms, she is a force of nature. She is a shapeshifter herself, showing up as the wild places. Protector of cattle, deer and wolves. She is the veiled one of the winter season and is the dark mother!

We are at a liminal time, a threshold of entering the darkness. Are you ready? Are you prepared?

THE MOON

Many celebrate Samhain alongside the moon. I will be honoring Samhain starting with the Full Moon on October 28th till the New Moon on November 13th (PST). Full Moon in the sign of Taurus moving through the signs till the New Moon in the sign of Scorpio.

Celebrating Samhain

There are many ways to celebrate:

• Walk in nature.

• Create an altar for Samhain and/or for your ancestors.

• Silent suppers. Setting a place at the table for your ancestors.

• Samhain ancestor meditation. (See ritual below)

• Get a past life reading.

• Commune with the dead. There are several ways to do this but please be intentional and respectful. Only attempt this if you feel comfortable, protected and strong. This can be easier if you use some sort of divination method like tarot cards or pendulums.

• Build a fire, this is a fire holiday after all.

I plan to create an altar and to tune into this liminal space between the worlds, to listen, to connect with my ancestors. I am also gathering with a group to specifically honor and celebrate Samhain. Additionally, we will be doing tarot readings using questions like:

What will support me during this time of winter darkness?
What am I ready to leave behind, to let go of?
What do I need to face, what have I been turning from? 
What guidance does the Cailleach have for me?
What wisdom do my ancestors want to offer me?
What seeds do I need to sow now and incubate for the coming spring?

RITUAL

Light a candle or focus on the one pictured here.

Listen to this ritual/meditation. First a calling in the directions to create a sacred space. Then for taking a journey to meet with your ancestors. Ending with a prayer and blessing.

(There will come a time in the recording to pause it. You will be prompted. This is so you can continue at your own pace. And when ready just push play again.)

PRAYER AND BLESSING

In celebration of this Samhain time, may we honor the cycles that bring us to this time of darkness. May we relinquish into the rest that we are invited into. Letting the old fall away, remembering that for any new growth to occur space is needed. Fertilizer required to feed the young sprout to be. For now, it is about surrender. Trust. Acceptance. May we open to the Dark Mother of this time, the Cailleach, Inanna, Hekate, Kali, Morrigan. Receiving their blessings, guided through this time of cleansing. Knowing we are protected by them too, in inexplicable ways. Teaching us we cannot know the light without knowing the dark. For without death there would be no life.  Blessed Be!

Would love to know your thoughts. How are you celebrating Samhain? Do you work with your ancestors? If so how? What do we need to be with during this time of darkness? Let’s have a conversation…

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