Today is Samhain. It is one of the most important of the 8 Sabbats, as it is the Pagan New Year. The wheel of the year has turned full circle and a new year begins.

The word Samhain means ‘Suns end’. It is pronounced Sowin.

Leaves fall and the trees become silent and skeletal against the darkening skies. The sap which rose in the spring and made the land fertile and green, now returns to the roots of the earth, where it will wait silently until the warmth of spring and rebirth draws it back to the surface. This is the eternal cycle of death and rebirth, not a rigid straight line, but rather a continual cycle, season by season, year by year.

Samhain is the third of the harvest festivals, only this isn’t a harvest of crops or grain; it is the harvest of flesh. It was the time of year when farmers and families would slaughter cattle and preserve the meat to last through the cold winter months.

Samhain is a festival of death as it is the death of the year and of the waxing Sun. It is also the death of the earth when plants, seeds, and acorns are now slowly descending underground to ready themselves to be reborn come Spring. Animals will begin to hibernate, and the earth will appear barren as it sleeps through the winter months.

Earth energies are being pulled inwards at this time. We should also be looking inwards at ourselves. Contemplate the year we have had and what lessons we have learned, whether they were good or bad, and what can we take from them and use in the future.

The God of the waxing Sun descends into the underworld, opening up the veil between the two worlds of the living and the dead. At Samhain spirits can commune with the living and visit us. We remember our ancestors and the people and pets who have died. We honor them by placing pictures of them on our altars and invite them to join us. We should also adorn our altars with seasonal fare such as fallen leaves, twigs, acorns, nuts, turnips, and pumpkins and offer these as gifts to the Triple Goddess, who is now in her crone phase. She is the wise dark mother of knowledge and days past.

Although a time of death, Samhain is also a time of fresh starts and new beginnings. It is a time of ‘out with the old and in with the new’. It’s an excellent time to look forward to our future.

On Samhain we should light a fire, as this is primarily a Celtic fire festival where the villagers and towns folk would light giant bonfires to say goodbye to the God of the waxing Sun and to thank the Goddess for her harvest of gifts bestowed upon the earth. There would also be big feasts with stews, corn, and breads, and we would give thanks for the people in our lives and show gratitude for all that we have, and give thanks to the people who are no longer with us and invite them to join us at the feast.

Light a candle tonight and put it in a window facing West to light the way for our lost loved ones and invite their spirits to visit us.
Today is a great time for divination, for doing Tarot reading and looking to the future, asking ourselves how we can improve our lives and move forward for the coming year.

Have a Blessed Samhain & may the God and Goddess watch over you.

Written credit: Various

Photo Credit: Wicca Teachings

Developmental Editing by Lisa Marino