As Samhain approaches, we arrive at one of the most sacred turning points on the Wheel of the Year.
Long before Halloween became a celebration of costumes and candy, Samhain marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. The fields had given what they could. The animals were brought in, food was stored, and families prepared for the long, dark months ahead.
It was also a time of remembrance. In ancient Gaelic tradition, this turning of the year was associated with the Otherworld, when the boundary between the living and the dead was believed to grow thin.
I find something beautiful in the way our ancestors understood these transitions. They lived close enough to the rhythms of the earth to recognize that darkness was not something to fear, but a necessary part of the cycle.
Samhain invites us to consider what we've gathered, what we've lost, and what we wish to carry forward. To honor those whose lives made our own possible, and to recognize that not everything is meant to flourish in every season.
There is wisdom in knowing when to harvest, when to release, and when to rest.
May this turning of the year find you grateful for what has sustained you and gentle with yourself about what must be left behind.
~ Ella
via Rebel Thriver
October 30, 2026
via Rebel Thriver
October 30, 2026
What if we brought reverence back into Halloween?
Learning about and teaching the roots of ancestral holidays that capitalism has twisted is a responsibility we owe to our children.
And not only to our children but to our earth – honoring ancestors.
Educate yourself. And start where you are curious. . . . If you have living relatives, who remember the stories of your people, go and record them! Trace your Roots.
Put out photos. Light candles. Speak to your ancestors. Place a small portion of your meal on an ancestor plate to feed them.
It doesn’t matter where you start. . . . Just start where you can, and the ritual will expand with each year.
Let’s raise a generation of children who know how to honor the ones that prayed for their lives.
The dead are not distant or absent. They are alongside us. When we lose someone to death, we lose their physical image and presence, they slip out of visible form into invisible presence. This alteration of form is the reason we cannot see the dead. But because we cannot see them does not mean that they are not there. Transfigured into eternal form, the dead cannot reverse the journey and even for one second re-enter their old form to linger with us a while. Though they cannot reappear, they continue to be near us and part of the healing of grief is the refinement of our hearts whereby we come to sense their loving nearness. When we ourselves enter the eternal world and come to see our lives on earth in full view, we may be surprised at the immense assistance and support with which our departed loved ones have accompanied every moment of our lives. In their new, transfigured presence their compassion, understanding and love take on a divine depth, enabling them to become secret angels guiding and sheltering the unfolding of our destiny.
Make sure you do not let tonight pass without pausing. Samhain is the night the old year ends and the new one begins, and the veil between worlds is said to be at its thinnest. Make sure you step away from your phone. Make sure you light a candle. Make sure you sit in the quiet for a few minutes and let yourself feel how far you have come this year. Tonight is not about doing more. It is about stopping long enough to hear what your intuition has been trying to tell you.
Tonight, make sure you say out loud what you are leaving behind in the old year. Make sure you thank it. Then make sure you say what you are calling into the new one, clearly and without apologizing for wanting it.
Pay attention to the thoughts, signs, and dreams that arrive tonight, because they are not random.. And tomorrow, the 1/11/1 portal opens a fresh beginning, so make sure you go into it lighter.
Release tonight. Receive tomorrow.
Your new years starts in the dark, and it was always meant to. Trust.
Samhain is here . . . and darkness falls.
Traditionally, Samhain is a time of divination, of communicating with absent friends or the deepest parts of ourselves, the still silent waters in our spirits. . . . The water of Samhain is motionless, reflective, and we can look into its mirrored surface and see all the mysteries that lay beyond life. At Samhain, the past year finally slips away, and with one last breath we close our eyes . . . only to open them again at another time, another place, another life.
Water is usually associated with the west, the land of sunset, and Samhain is the moment when the sun’s last rays disappear behind the horizon and twilight drops its misty veil. We can look behind the veil and see things that were hidden by the light of day.
– Dianne Sylvan
Excerpted from The Circle Within”
Llewellyn Publications (2003)
Excerpted from The Circle Within”
Llewellyn Publications (2003)
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• All Hallows Blessing
• Samhain: Reaffirming the Oneness of All Spirits
• Something to Think About – October 31, 2022
• Samhain: A Time of Magick and Mystery
• At Hallowtide, Pagan Thoughts on Restoring Our World and Our Souls
• Resilience and Hope
• Hallowtide Reflections
• An All Hallows Eve Reflection
• Halloween Thoughts
• A Hallowtide Reflection
• The Pagan Roots of All Saints Day
• Remembering the Beloved Dead
• “Call Upon Those You Love”
• Our Sacred Journey Continues: An All Saints and Souls Day Reflection
• An All Souls Day Reflection
• Advent: A “ChristoPagan” Perspective
• Magician Among the Spirits
• Holy Encounters Where Two Worlds Meet
• Balancing the Fire
• November Musings
• November Song
• Time to Go Inwards
• Anew
Opening and closing images: Michael J. Bayly
No comments:
Post a Comment