03/11/2021
The season of Samhain is upon us... it started, in my opinion at least 3 weeks ago. The veil has been slowly lifting since Lammas, as it does, but I really felt a sudden shift in energy around mid-October when I felt Samhain settle around my shoulders... As with all the Greater Sabbats we should, as we work through the Wheel of the Year, be able to “feel” each one as its energy picks up, settles and then slowly departs. These Sabbats are not ruled by a date or time like the Lesser Sabbats of the Equinoxes and Solstices, instead the Witch feels them in their body and can see the changes they bring in the landscape, smell them in the air... each of the Sabbats of Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas and Samhain are festivals that honour life, death and rebirth. These are the Sabbats that mark the pastoral year and contain within them the sustenance of all that we need to “feed” our magical selves as we mark each turn of the Wheel. The Greater Sabbats contain within them the truth of our lives and the importance of recognising who we are within the Great Wheel. They give us the space to contemplate what life, death and rebirth means to us and how we approach our magics within this framework. They teach us to celebrate and honour each phase of our own lives as we age and grow in wisdom. These Sabbats are those that teach us the most... If we choose to fully immerse ourselves in them.
For me, Samhain is NOT 31st October... this is Halloween... which certainly has its roots in our ancient festival of Samhain but has been hijacked by trick or treating and more plastic decorations than Christmas! Don’t get me wrong, I love Halloween and for me it is a time to gather with friends and “be” together. This year, as I have done for most years pre pandemic, I gathered with good friends up in Scotland in Roslin Castle. The castle is the ancient seat of the Sinclair's and on the castle walls are many old paintings and even some photos of the Sinclair ancestors, lending an atmosphere conducive to the season... a sense of many layers of time overlapping within the fabric of the castle walls and rooms. The castle itself is beautiful but cold and draughty, it has a large ancient stone-built fire place in its main room and this is the room where we all gathered at the end of the day after long autumn walks in the glen. In true Halloween fashion, we sat drinking good wine, narrating ghost stories and sharing about those loved ones we hold dear whom have passed into the Hidden Company. We even had a séance one evening with some success! On Halloween itself, we dressed the castle with typically spooky decorations, carved pumpkins and dressed for dinner in Halloween fancy dress, all of us looking fabulous. We spent the evening warm and cosy inside, rain hitting the windows, fire blazing brightly, feeling safe within the bright circle of good friendships. For me Halloween is a precursor to Samhain proper... an acknowledgement of life continuing as we go into the winter, as the veil finally lifts completely and we face the darkness fully. Gathering in the way I do with close friends at Halloween gives me the comfort and warmth of light in darkness, of fun and laughter ringing out on the autumn night air, allowing us to understand that friendship and community helps us all through the dark nights of winter.
Samhain, like Halloween, is also a time of gathering close to those we care about, particularly, for me, my magical family, my Coven. I try to celebrate Samhain at the dark of the moon, this year it is tomorrow, November the 4th. Yes, many call this Moon the New, but I will always honour it as the Dark phase with the New being when I can see the moons first silver bow as it once more begins to grow. As the Moon wanes and becomes dark we can give honour and praise to the Goddess in her Crone phase, and at this time of year in particular we can honour Her more completely, for she both rules this Moon phase and this season. We acknowledge her wisdom and honour Her as the comforter at the end of our time dwelling within the bodies our souls have chosen in this incarnation. Her consort, the Horned One, as the harbinger of death, is the one who stands at the gateway of this world here and that world there, the threshold between life and death. It is He who holds out his hand to gather the souls of the newly departed and take them through the veil to rest in the arms of the Crone until rebirth is granted... At the Samhain rite it is He who opens the Gate so we may both honour and be with our dead at this most holey of rituals. At our Rite we honour both He and She.
People wish each other a “happy Samhain” and that is their right, but for me this phrase jars my senses. “Happy Halloween” is fine and fitting when I gather with my dear friends in celebration of the Autumn, gathering in the light of love and friendship as the dark nights draw in... this is a happy time indeed. Samhain is different. It is a time of deep contemplation of life and death, a time to consider our own mortality and decay, a time to gather close to our dead, a time to perhaps cry a little when remembering them... and a time to smile at precious memories that keep our dead alive in our hearts. “Blessed Samhain” perhaps is more fitting... not that happiness is not a part of this particular Tide, it can and should be, but for me this Tide hits far deeper and is far more emotional and complex than any other Sabbat. It is certainly a “blessed” time of year, one that links us to the past in remembrance of all that has been, and one that links us to the future as we journey deeply within to see what magics we may manifest in the Spring when Imbolc finally brings us from darkness to light.
The veil, as I have mentioned, begins to thin from Lammas, the first stirring of Autumn, and the Door Between the Wolds continues to open through the Autumn Equinox and on into Samhain where it is almost fully open. However, it is fully flung wide at the festival of the Winter Solstice where we can once again gather, the night before the New Born Sun rises, to honour those who have travelled beyond. This too is a time of ghost stories and of scrying, of coming together in a circle of love and friendship and of honouring the darkness before celebrating the soon to be returning light. Samhain therefore, to me, is a season within a season, a small period of time stretched out for a number of weeks from mid-October to the end of November give or take (remember, it’s all about “feeling” the season within you), when we can fully appreciate life in death and the darkness that envelopes us. I naturally shy away from winter, I am a summer person, but I do value this time of year and the deep magics we can access if we allow the Tide of Samhain to wrap around us and teach us what we need to know.
Whenever and however you choose to mark this holy time I wish you a very blessed Samhain. May your dead rest easy, may your own spirit find comfort in the teaching of the season and may the Gods smile favourably upon you all.
