It is the time.
It is the time.
It is the time, it is said
when veils thin between the world of the living and the dead.
As the next Turn of the Wheel approaches we enter the season of Samhain*. (Sowen)
This turn is a time of celebration and honoring, of preparing and listening. All Hallows Eve welcomes in the gateway to the dark time of the year. We celebrate the life we are living and the roads we travel. We dance the spiral of death and rebirth by honoring our ancestors both of blood and spirit. Ever seeing our selves in the great web of unending LIFE. We prepare for changes in day and night light hours as the balance tips to one. Listening for allied voices that speak from the universal womb of silence. Exhale…drop anchor…expand and REMEMBER…
Feel into the regenerative spiraling energy as it moves in and out on each breath. What comes to you as you watch the cycle? What do your senses perceive? Beyond that? And still further? The breath is a spiral. Samhain opens the spiral pathway, extending it as the cycle of death and re-birth dances its never-ending dance.
As the veils thin we are given the opportunity to connect to those who have gone before. We can expand the definition of ancestor beyond blood-relations, as for some these lines are fraught with challenging emotions, to include ancestors of spirit. Do you feel yourself part of a lineage? Artists? Healers? Wisdom Keepers? Who inspires you? Who are kindred to you? Name them! At Samhain honor them!
Samhain is a potent and expressive season. One of four High Holidays that cross-quarter the Equinox and Solstice. Treat this time with gentle inquiry. Decorate your altar with images that invoke your lineage and ancestors, beloved dead. Use autumn leaves, fall flowers, pomegranates, apples, pumpkins, ears of corn, sprays of grain, corn dollies, gourds, nuts, seeds, acorns, chestnuts to call in the final harvest. Consider wearing black and gold/orange clothes and candles with gold and deep red to accent too. Divination with the 13 Moon deck or other tools is particularly enlightening, as is fire and candle gazing. Choose your favorite! Scribe, dance, celebrate and HONOR!
Welcome Samhain! A time when the veils thin between the living and the dead.
(*Note: Samhain is pronounced sowen, soween, saw-win, saw-vane or sahven, not sam-hayne. Other names for Samhain include Samhuin, Samain, Saman, Oidhche Shamhna, Hallowe’en, Halloween, Hallows, Hallowtide, Shadow Fest, Allantide, Third Harvest, Harvest Home, Geimredh, Day of the Dead (Feile na Marbh), Feast of the Dead, Spirit Night, Candle Night, November Eve, Nutcrack Night, Ancestor Night and Apple Fest.) From the White Goddess
