Lunar Samhain has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere. Although Halloween is celebrated on the 31st of October, this year’s Samhain portal runs between the 27th of October (New Moon) until the 8th of November, the Solar Samhain (midpoint between the Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice). The Scorpio New Moon is the darkest Moon of the year and here in Holland last Sunday the clock was set to Winter Time. This always gives me a sense of jet lag and it takes my biological clock some time to get used to. So my head is feeling foggy, but also the energies at this time are very strong, sometimes it is hard to discern which plane I am experiencing. My Beloved Dead are certainly active at the moment. Can you feel it too? There is magick in the air!
The Veils
Samhain marks the end of harvest season and the beginning of the colder half of the year and yes it is getting nippy out there, with temperatures at night dropping to near frost. This is the witches’ New Year and the veil between “worlds” is at its thinnest right now. Scorpio season is about diving deep into our shadows and subconscious and this is also a time for connecting to those who have come and gone before us.
This is the end of harvest season and the beginning of the colder half of the year – the Samhain period, usually October 31st until November 6th/7th at the exact midpoint between the Autumn equinox and the Winter Solstice. Samhain is therefor a cross quarter day, also called the Witches’ new year, a new spiritual new year .
Lifes celebrated
Traditionally the night of All Hallow’s Eve is associated with celebrating our ancestors. Also in non-Pagan traditions celebrations such as All Soul’s Day, All Saints Day and Dia de los Muertos are celebrated. This time of year has from long in the past been for honoring those who have passed over. Graves and burial sites were and are visited and decorated, including favorite food and drink and objects of those who passed. Families even spend the night (or nights) at the cemeteries. The ancestors are re-membered and celebrated and I love that.
Here in The Netherlands this isn’t a normal practice, we have lost touch with rituals such as these and our ancestors mostly forgotten or perhaps sometimes mentioned at a family gathering. I see this in my own life where I recently mentioned my practice of offering drinks and food to my beloved dead and having an altar for my ancestors and this was greeted with an uncomfortable silence and some light sniggering, though my cousin tried this practice and is now occasionally giving her deceased father a dram of Whiskey and she says it brings her great comfort and a sense that it is appreciated and received by him. Not so long ago, after the cremation of my dear uncle, we gathered at my aunt’s house and we talked about the past and shared memories. The subject of spirituality and the afterlife came up and we talked about my grandmother, aunts and mother who were into the paranormal and spirituality. And the tone was again that of light mockery. So yes I stand alone in my family now as being the remaining woowoo one as my ‘paranormal’ family members are now guiding me from the other side. And yes I am weird and proud of it!
Honor and re-member
It is a shame though as I do feel honoring our dead and death rituals and rites brings a lot of solace and purpose. Rituals of re-membering are important as in our modern world our biggest fear is our own death and being forgotten. Death is a part of life, it is like day and night and light and dark, one doesn’t exist without the other, they compliment each other. We see death everywhere and every day and we especially see it in nature at this time of year. Nourishing your relationship with the dead, helps you with living as you honor those who have gone before and you know you will not be forgotten and live on. With death comes an opening for new growth. A new cycle of life. Death is not the end, but a new beginning. Relating to our Beloved Dead is a universal theme we see everywhere, from the earliest human excavations featuring ritual burial places in the living spaces of those people. Unfortunately we have lost this connection, we have separated the dead from the living and today I would like to ask you to invite them back in and see how this changes you and your relationship with dying. This is the time to do it as the veils are thin and it will be easier to contact your Beloved Dead at this time.
It is now easier to contact our our ancestors as our psychic senses are heightened. The energy of Samhain is strong and we can see it’s power in nature dying all around us. We are inspired to turn inward and lean into the yin energy of the season. I always have the urge to do Fall cleaning, make my home winter ready, organized and extra cozy, less outside distraction and a need for more me-time. In short I want to hibernate. Curl up in a little ball and sleep. Wake me when Spring is returns.
Scorpio season
This is an intense time of year, Scorpio season. You may be feeling challenged and our (and other’s) shadows may be seen more clearly now. Don’t be afraid of confronting your own darker side, be prepared to meet what you have been trying to hide away from.
As we are entering Scorpio season, the season of diving deep and dying, I am being inspired more and more to share my stories more openly, sharing my magick with the world and coming out of hiding.
Ancestral healing
Now I have been using terms such as Beloved Dead and Ancestors, but please know that these aren’t exclusively your blood relatives, but I refer to the people who came before you. Yes your family, but also friends and even people that inspired you but you may have never met in person (such famous historical figures and celebrities). In short anyone you ever loved.
Now here I do refer to lineage as the releasing of old family patterns is also part of what it means to honor our ancestors. We can heal our lineage by no longer carrying that what was burdening our families. These shadow aspects are more apparent at this time, so it is easier to work and heal them now. This is a time of transformation, a time in a cocoon, resting in transition from one state to the next.
On this picture above you see my Samhain altar. It has Memento Mori such as skulls and the Death tarot card, harvest vegetables, pictures of my Mom and Dad, candles, incense, a cup of red wine offering (my parents both loved their wine) and a bowl of water (as a barrier between the living and the dead). I have also added tiny sugar skulls and I have written the names of my Beloved Departed on top of the heads (I have not added people who died within twelve months of Samhain). After Samhain I will leave the skulls outside, so the rain will dissolve them into the ground ensuring a sweet new year.
This time of year is auspicious for divination work and I have quite a few tarot orders around this time. I love doing tarot readings, but at this time of year the readings seem deeper and shine a light on shadow issues, something I really dig as I am partial to depth and the darker, more hidden side of life. I feel our greatest potential is there, lurking in the shadows. Tarot is a great medium to shine a light in that darkness and point you towards growth and insight. I did this Samhain reading for myself. And I will do many more the coming days, as there is so much to uncover.
I still have room in my practice to do a reading for you. Please read more about these here: https://www.joyincreation.com/oracle-card-readings/
Wishing you a deep and healing Samhain. Love, Charissa xxx
“The autumn woman moves towards dreamtime. Though she knows her limits, she has also felt limitless. She has known the ineffable. She wakes at night from dreams of high windy places where small blue flowers bloom, and she knows in her bones that such places exist. Luminous beings appear in
—Patricia Monaghan, excerpted from Seasons of the Witch
her dreams and pull her towards them. She recognizes the dust of infinity in a windstorm, the fragrance of timelessness in a fire…”
