Subtle Samhain celebration

Samhain basically marks 3 things:

1) it is the last harvest of the year. Samhain means “summer’s end.” This was a very scary time for the ancients, because the only food they and their animals had to live on all winter long was what was brought in by this last harvest. For this reason this was also the time when sick, weak or old animals were slaughtered, both so there would be more feed to go around for the healthy animals and to provide meat during the long winter. This is one reason why death and the dead are associated with this day.

2) it is a time for remembering, honoring and communicating with one’s ancestors who have passed over to the other side. Samhain is the Celtic New Year, and “between” times are very important and considered magical in the Celtic tradition. In ‘tween times and places the veil between the world of the living and the dead, and between mortal and fey, is thinner. So at dawn, dusk or midnight, as transition times between day and night or one day to the next, it is easier to contact other realms. But Samhain and Beltaine (May 1) are particularly powerful, because these are the transition times between the only two seasons in the Celtic Year, from Summer to Winter in the first instance, and from Winter to Summer in the second. And Samhain is the most powerful, because it is the transition from one year to the next. At this time more than any other time of the year the veil between the worlds is thinnest, so communication with the dead or the fey is easiest. This is why ghosts and various other supernatural beings are said to walk amongst the living on this night.

3) In Wiccan mythology it marks the descent of the Goddess into the Underworld to find her lover, the sun or corn god, otherwise known as the Summer King or Oak King. As a sun god He is generally considered to be at his full power at the Summer Solstice (June 21), the longest day of the year, after which he begins to age and weaken, until the fall equinox (around September 21 and the second harvest festival; the first is Lughnasa, August 1). On the equinox, day and night are equal and the sun king does battle with the god of the Underworld, the Winter or Holly King, and dies, beginning his descent to the underworld as the days get shorter than the nights. On Samhain the goddess strips herself of everything in her difficult descent into the realm of the dead, humbling herself to retrieve her lost love. The Holly King (who is really just another aspect of the sun god, two sides of the same coin) falls in love with the Goddess, impregnates her, and she carries the sun god back to the world of the living to give birth to him at Yule. (One well known descent into the Underworld story is the myth of Inanna, searching for her lover Tammuz; another version is the story of Persephone, either kidnapped by Hades to be his queen in the Underworld, or voluntarily descending to learn magick from the crone goddess Hecate…)

There are a number of subtle things you can do to mark these three qualities of the day. First, I’ll give you the “physical” stuff.

1) To mark the harvest festival and honor the bounty the dying god has made possible, you can eat seasonal foods, like corn bread or whole grain foods, apples, pomegranates (associated with Persephone), red wine (associated with Hecate) etc. It is also common among pagans to donate canned goods to a food bank or pet food to a local animal shelter to help the needy through the cold season ahead. It is also traditional to decorate the home with seasonal flowers, corn husks and corn dollies (the little husk dolls you see sold in quaint shops, dressed in mob caps and aprons, that sort of thing, that lots of people have just as a decoration with no spiritual significance). It’s also a good time to have a party, to celebrate your bounty with your friends by sharing food and camaraderie with them (which used to be all there was to do in the winter months, before radio and tv!) Handing out candy to the trick or treaters is symbolic, as well. Hospitality, especially at this time of year, was very important to the Celts, and leaving food set aside for the ancestors and the fey is the root of the trick or treating tradition. (It is traditional to offer the hospitality of your home to the fey for the long cold winter months at this time, and leave a plate of food or a glass of milk or whiskey outside your door for them. You should not extend such an invitation without the full knowledge and approval of everyone who lives in the house.  However, you can take a dish of food outside where it won’t be found and leave it by a tree or some such, as a gesture of friendship.)

2) To honor your ancestors, you can set up a “Day of the Dead” table. This doesn’t need to be anything terribly obvious, just a rearrangement of items you may already have into one particular place. Such tables usually include pictures of loved ones, friends or family, who have passed on; items that belonged to them or were loved by them; their favorite flowers, a candle lit in their honor, etc. You could set up your own without raising too many eyebrows just by putting a few pictures on your bureau in your room.

Next, for some “internal” stuff that no one needs to know you are doing, because you can do it in your room in the dark when everyone thinks you have gone to bed. That is, meditation and visualization. There are a number of meditations or visualizations you can do for the season. Two examples: you can reach out to your ancestors and loved ones on the other side; or you can imagine yourself retracing the Goddess’ footsteps in her descent into the Underworld (if you get a book of mythology out of the library you can read up on Inanna or Persephone, etc. to get the details that will help you visualize the journey). Just make sure if you choose the latter your intent is clear, whether to honor the Goddess, understand her better, or find some wisdom to take back with you. Always have a purpose in your workings.

A Wiccan doing such meditations would do a whole ritual designed to set up the proper mood, provide protection and invoke divine and magickal energies to assist in the working, but if you can’t do such a thing in your current environment (burn candles, set up an athame, wand, chalice and pentacle, god and goddess image, etc.) without attracting attention, I would suggest that you instead make such elements part of your meditation. That is, when you close your eyes, visualize yourself in a temple or sacred space of your choosing, complete with all the implements that you would find useful in your ritual, and imagine yourself going through the motions of lighting candles, invoking deity, etc. You can use the complete form of a Wiccan ritual, if you so choose, but the important thing is that it is meaningful and helpful to you and your goal, so don’t be afraid to ask spirit for its assistance in helping you improvise — the most powerful symbolism is the most personal.

Having said that, there are 2 specific visualizations I strongly urge you to perform, even if you don’t visualize any sort of ritual before doing either of the two meditations above.

1) Ground and center. This will keep you from getting distracted, disoriented or light headed and help anchor you to this plane and your body while you “travel.” My favorite method of doing this is to imagine I’m sitting against a strong tree with deep roots. A column of light enters your body from above (sun, stars, deity, etc.), passes through your body and down your spinal column, and out through your rear and your feet into the ground, going deep into the earth and spreading roots all through. Energy then comes up from the center of the earth, through your roots, and out the top of your head, showering around you like branches or leaves. To center, imagine all of your body’s energy or aura being pulled to the center of your body, around your navel, and focus on that power center and source of strength.

2) Protect yourself. There are any number of visualizations you can do for this, but basically imagine that ball of energy at your center expanding to form a sphere around your entire body, glowing and pulsing with brilliant light (in whatever color you feel represents protection or safety) and being fed by the still circulating energy from above and below. You can visualize symbols in front of you (religious symbols or anything that makes you feel protected) or that you are wearing armor, an invisibility cloak, or carrying a shield, etc. Then you can further expand that sphere to encompass your entire room or even your house, recognizing that only positive energy will be allowed to permeate it and nothing negative can get through.

Once you have done these things, you can either start your descent into the underworld visualization or reach out to communicate with your loved ones. A simple visualization for the latter is to see blackness all around you, that starts to thin in one spot and gradually pulls back, like a curtain separating. Reach out not just with your thoughts but with your emotions, and periodically take inventory of what you are feeling to make sure you are fully aware of what can be very subtle sensations. From my experience I can tell you that contact may not seem specific, as far as getting a sense of a particular person, a name, a scent or whatever (although that does happen), but for me it is always an intensely emotional experience as I feel surrounded by warmth, comfort, peace, and immense love, like being surrounded by generation upon generation of blood kin who all know and love me.

When you are ready to return, thank the beings you have met and bid them a courteous farewell; bring yourself back to your tree and imagine the protective sphere gradually shrink until it is back inside you, and imagine the energy from above and below gradually dissipating, though some of it remains with you and you know the shield is always protecting you even without your conscious awareness. Then bring yourself slowly back to conscious awareness and open your eyes; if you feel really buzzed or overly energized or light headed, you can “ground” the excess energy by kneeling on the floor on all fours and imagining the excess draining down your arms and legs into the earth. You might also want to walk around a bit and eat something, to bring your awareness fully back to your body and this physical reality. As I said, you can do most of this alone in your room or wherever you can have a few uninterrupted quiet moments so you can concentrate, without anybody knowing what your doing other than “sleeping,” “thinking,” or “resting your eyes.

Good luck with your celebration, have a blessed Samhain and a happy Halloween!

BB,
Vivienne