Samhain, (pronounced SOW-in), is generally celebrated on October 31, although some celebrate on November 1. This holiday marks the final harvest and the beginning of the darkness of Winter. It is the Celtic new year and many great feasts take place on this day. During this time the veil between the worlds is the thinnest and the normal laws of space and time are suspended.
Samhain is a very good time to preform divinations of any sort. Whether you use oracle cards, scrying, pendulums, or some other form of divination, the answers will be clear on this day. Many people like celebrate with a feast by setting places at the table for deceased ancestors and family members. Apples are a common item left for those who have passed on as they are considered the food of the dead. This holiday is a great day to make magickal crafts such as a besoms, a book 0f shadows, or gifts and offerings to the dead. The dead can also be honored by lighting a candle for each person remembered and placing pictures of the deceased on your alter.
Magick is particularly potent on this day, as the veil between the worlds is now at its thinnest. Contact with the dead, guardians, or guides will be much easier during this time. Strange things may happen during the night of this celebration, as spirits now find it easier to reach us through the veil. It is a good time to share with friends and family around a bonfire, sharing stories of ancestors and experiences with the otherworld. A walk in the woods with those who are close to you at twilight on this day would be most magickal as well.
It is a good time to do meditations and journeys to the otherworld on this day. Travel between the worlds will be much easier at this time. A meditation or journey to ask for answers to questions or guidance from guides and ancestors would probably have the most success on this day. It is a good time to get in contact with native spirits of the land where you live as well. All land has guardians watching over it of some sort, whether it be the spirit of the land itself, tree, earth, and wind spirits, or the spirits of ancient peoples who have long lived on and protected the land as sacred. An outside meditation in the woods or in a field will bring much insight and connection with these spirits. You should leave an offering in a field or around the base of a tree where you meditated when you are finished, to show thanks for the guidance of the spirits, and to honor them.
It is a great feeling when you have established a real connection with the spirits of the land you live on. It is a feeling of mutual respect and love between you and the land, no matter where you go on your property, you feel as though you have friends watching over you. It is as though you begin to understand the feelings and thoughts of the land, and you become one with it.
What is Samhain not? It is not a holiday of death and darkness nor a time to celebrate evil. It is a time to honor the dead and to get in touch with guides and ancestors on the other side. It is a time of celebration of the wheel of the year and the old new year. It saddens me to see the extents some religious organizations will go to in order to make paganism look bad. In Poland, for example, an archbishop has been putting out “notice” of the “evils” of paganism and halloween, saying this is a holiday of darkness and death used to celebrate evil spirits. Nothing could be further from the truth. Paganism and Samhain are ancient, earth based religions and celebrations. Pagans are normal people, most that you meet you will find are very loving, caring, open minded humans who just want peace. Pagans have nothing to do with evil spirits of any sort and do not celebrate contact with them, as a matter of fact, we do not even acknowledge nor believe in the evils which mainstream religion so often accuses us of worshiping. The archbishop went on to say how halloween distracts people from celebrating all saints day. Perhaps his memory is lapsing, because all saints day was originally intended to make pagans celebrate and forget something other than what they believed, in other words, Samhain. Therefore, who is distracting being distracted by what?
I will be spending Samhaim at home this year with my family. I plan on lighting candles for my deceased loved ones, the witches who suffered during the days of the trials, and the native spirits of my land. We will probably have some sort of a special dinner and take a walk in our woods in the evening to experience the magickal energies of the holiday outside. It will probably be too wet to light a bonfire, due to the hurricane rains affecting my state. Later I will do a ritual to honor the spirits, a special meditation, and maybe some divination. After all that I plan on cuddling up with my blanket and my loved ones and enjoying the magick of the night.
I hope all of you have a blessed Samhain and enjoy the magick of the night!
Blessed be
Primordial EarthSky 