🧙‍♀️Samhain🧙‍♀️

Summer has well and truly ended (although it is a beautiful day here today) Winter will be upon us soon (my favourite season)

October 31st marks the Pagan celebration, Samhain - Summers end. Samhain is a celebration to honour our ancestors when the veil is at its thinnest between the two worlds. A wonderful time to communicate with our loved ones, talk about them and remember them fondly. A time of both death and rebirth, it marks the end of a bountiful harvest season and the beginning of winter, the end of one cycle and the beginning of another.

In Pagan tradition, a bonfire is lit on October 31st which marks the last of the harvest and the beginning of the Pagan New Year on November 1st. Fire is the traditional marker of this festival – in years past this would have been a time to gather with community at the fire, a symbol that light is born from the darkness, a reminder that the sun will return in the Spring. If you have a fire at home, this is the perfect evening to light it up, get cosy and spend the evening watching those flames dance.

It is Samhain tradition to set up an altar for the dead, featuring photographs and symbols of death. Most Wiccans create a specific altar for this Pagan holiday as it is the perfect time to honor nature, life and rebirth. Samhain is the perfect time for divination so be sure to add your pendulums, tarot cards and divining rods to your alter, or whatever other divination tools you practice with. I have also included poems I wrote for my Nan and my Grans funerals to honour them at this time. You could also include crystals, herbs, food, fabrics and candles to your Samhain alter.

At Samhain the dark half of the year commences. It is a truly magical time. Death is always followed by rebirth and while this is the end of the old year, it is the beginning of the New Year. For the Celts the day did not begin at dawn, it began at sunset, it began with darkness.

If you do choose to mark the day then I wish you a very happy halloween, and blessed Samhain.

Claire - Sentient In Harmony 🌹x