Your Personal Samhain Practice
Welcome to your practice! This is your space and time for you. Take a moment, if you haven’t already, and gather some items, light a candle, burn sacred herbs or woods, and turn the lights down: set your space, create a container.
Some items, or Masters as I like to call them, may want to join you in witnessing or co-facilitating ceremony with you. These items may bring additional rounds to your practice or enhance and compliment a round you are currently in.
An item could be: oracle or tarot cards, crystals, special items gifted by loved ones, an item that holds ancestral significance or energy, special clothes for ceremony (scarves, pants, shirts, belts, jewellery), sacred adornments (earrings, necklace, rings, bracelets, crown), the list is limitless. It is your intention that creates the connection and sacredness in the item. So, trust yourself to know what needs to show up. Be open to how your items reach out to you.
In the introduction of sacred items, I spoke about how an item such as an oracle deck could create a “round” in our ceremony. Let me introduce some terms and aspects to ceremony so you can be supported in the creation of your samhain ceremony.
A round is something that holds an intention or purpose. A round on it’s own is both informative and experiential, while also contributing to the overall collective experience of the rounds in sequence. The sequence of yoru rounds creates your ceremony. An example of a few rounds in sequence would be: 1) beginning your ceremony with self directed breathing, 2) moving through a 3 song movement practice, 3) followed by stillness in front of your altar holding a crystal (maybe 5-10 minutes), 4) closing with an oracle pull and free stream journaling. In this example, each round or “practice” is individually complete in the transformation of energy, however when all the rounds are placed in specific orders and amounts they create an experiential arch. And, this arch is your ceremony.
Ceremony can be defined as a container that brings intention, presence, and connection to be experienced and understood.
What does Samhain bring?
The festival and threshold of Samhain marks the end of the year and the beginning of another. To the Celts, they believed that night precedes day, thus the darkness of yule and winter’s blanket of cold and snow is the dark that precedes the day of spring, light and creation.There is no doubt that Samhain was and is the most important ceremony of the traditional Celtic festivals.
When we move through decolonizing work and release attachments to things that our culture or society have created, one finds deep roots in what is and always has been. The Gregorian calendar is a tool that was man-made, created of the mind not of the Earth. The New Years Eve that is commonly celebrated in North America isn’t truly the beginning of a new year, but more so a new calendar year. Samhain is the acknowledged shift in a year, because it is the Earth’s final harvest and natural cull of what was once new growth and life from the year’s season. This is real and rooted in the Earth; this is when the threshold between death and rebirth begins.
Some call Samhain the juncture between the two halves of the Wheel of the Year, acquiring the supernatural status of being suspended in time. It could be said that time stands still on this night, when that which does not belong to the old year, does not belong to the new year either. During this night, the natural order and state of things are thrown into chaos, where the earthly world of the living becomes closely entangled with the underworld of the dead, releasing ancestors, gods, faeries, and many more creatures of uncertain natures. Amidst the dangers that chaos can bring us, it can also bring good: the energy of the great mystery, miracle energy, possibilities that never were possible but are now, for one night. With the help of ancestors, healing fae, or other mystical creatures, it is possible for the sick to heal, the desolate to become abundant; anything is possible.
This Samhain, I invite you to open yourself to what may shapeshift in your mind and external world, as what is real and fantasy may collide and crash in the chaos of the thinning of the veil - a moment, an evening - suspended in time. This is a time potent with possibility, so watch your thoughts and be sure of your words: this is a time of spelling and bring to the earth what your soul deeply needs for the next year. Over this next month, allow yourself to release what is a part of this last year and call in what will be the next. You are powerful and your ancestors and helping spirits are waiting to meet you at the veil.
What are we doing for Samhain?
This Samhain I invite you to bring forth your ancestral item. This could be an item your selected ancestor gave you, was passed down to you from, or an item that simply embodies an ancestor’s energy.
With the thinning of the veil and the possibilities of healing and support, we are going to choose one ancestor to connect with through automatic writing. Below I will give you a step by step process that you can use as direction for your own personal practice.
Create your sacred space
Open up your space and create a container by calling in your spiritual support team and acknowledging life around you:
Mother Earth
Benevolent ancestors of the Land
The Water near by your location
The Land you are on (whether you know it’s original name or not)
The living beings around you: tree people, plant people, rock people, animals, fungi
Healing angels, ascended masters, helping spirits, power animals, and any benevolent ancestors that want to support you on your healing journey
Stating any spiritual boundaries about your container (ex: I only want to attract and connect with spirits who are here to support me in my healing and journey with light, love, and peace)
Call in your selected ancestor of the evening by honouring them with a blessing
Something you love about them
Something you’re grateful for
Something they offered you or your lineage that you’re connected to
Share with your ancestor why you want to connect with them
Be aware of how you feel in your body and auric field
Remain open to any communication you may receive
Have your journal at hand and begin to “free stream journal” with the prompts provided below or your own. Free stream journaling is the practice of letting the mind go and the hand take control; whoever is leading the hand is sometimes a mystery, whereas in this case it’ll be your ancestor. Before you give them the wheel, have these prompts pre written out so you can let yourself or your ancestor be drawn to a certain one and free stream write.
I want you to know…
What I love about you…
Remember when…
I think…
This…
Allow yourself as much time as needed for this round.
If you want, this could be an opportunity to add another round into your ceremony, such as: meditation, oracle/tarot reading, movement, restorative yoga, bath, etc.
To close, acknowledge all the beings that participated in the holding of your container - any ones you names specifically - thank your ancestor and free them to go back the the places and spaces they need to be, while welcoming them to walk with you whenever you’d like (you set your boundaries), and close down spiritual/sacred space.
Make sure to give yourself some integration space and time after you close down ceremony. Allow yourself to move slowly and come back into regular space in your own time and way.
I hope this walk through was helpful and brought abundance and connection to your practice. If you would like to integrate anything that you experienced, please reach out via email - goddesshealinggrove@gmail.com - and I would be happy to connect with you and offer support.
May this Samhain offer you perspective and growth as we move into a new year, a new cycle, another turn of the Wheel of Life.
Shaw
Shaw
Shaw
Sending Love and Reiki Light of the Heart realms,
Natasha Áine