Celebrating Samhain: Modern Rituals and Festivities for Connection and Protection
Blessed Samhain and Happy Halloween! Samhain (pronounced sowen) marks the end of autumn harvests and the beginning of our descent into the dark quiet of winter. It’s a time when the veils are thin and our ancestors beckon (it’s no coincidence that Dia de los Muertos is right around the corner!).
Samhain also marks the arrival of the new year in the Celtic calendar. Originally celebrated midway between the autumn equinox (Mabon) and winter solstice (Yule), we now celebrate Samhain in conjunction with Halloween.
Among my witchy and non-witchy friends alike, Samhain is an eternal favorite on the holiday scale. From the epic indulgence of a good Halloween party to the subtle thrill of thinning veils, this is a time of year for celebration, connection . . . and protection.
Here are a few ideas for your own connection, protection, and celebration this Samhain…
Connect
Samhain is a wonderful time to connect with those who are not in physical bodies—this includes both our ancestors and those in the non-human realms (the fae, the elven folk, and other spirits). I also find that the combination of thin veils and the Celtic New Year make this a wonderful time for significant card readings.
Honor Your Ancestors
With the veils thin, our benevolent ancestors are often more accessible. There are myriad ways to honor and connect with them, so these are just a few ideas:
Create an altar to honor your ancestors
Take a shamanic journey to meet a benevolent ancestor that would like to teach you about your lineage and family gifts
Perform ancestral healing work on behalf of your family, in whatever traditions you feel comfortable with
Learn more about your own ancestors' traditions and see if you can incorporate some of their dress, food, and ritual into your celebrations
Create a piece of art, poem, song, or write a letter to honor a deceased loved one
Have a ceremony to honor those who have come before
Celebrate a positive ancestral mythology—who among your ancestors do you admire, and why?
Connect with the Spirit World
Many people have an easier time connecting with the spirit world at this time of year, as the density that often stands between us melts away. What is your favorite way to connect with spirit? Try some of your regular practices, and see what happens! Here are few more ideas:
Leave offerings for the fae, your house elf, or other local beings—they tend to appreciate special foods and treats.
Do a guided meditation to connect with your spirit guides (I’ve created one to help you meet a spirit animal ally here!).
Journey to meet with a benevolent representative of the fae in your area. Most neighborhoods have a fae council, though few of us are aware of them. See if a representative would be willing to meet with you during a shamanic journey and ask how you might build a good relationship with them.
If you already have a practice in these arts, this is a good time of year to perform psychopomp or host a Wild Hunt (in other words, help lost and suffering beings cross into the light).
Do a New Years Reading
Grab your favorite deck of Tarot or oracle cards, a set of Runes, or perhaps the I Ching, and see what’s in store for your Celtic year. The Tree of Life and Wheel of the Year are great card spreads to do at this time. Or make up your own!
Protect
Thinning veils aren’t all fun and games…keep yourself, your loved ones, and your space safe this season! While spiritual protection is a big topic—one I have a whole class on—there are a few things you can do to maintain your spiritual sovereignty right now.
White Light
So common it’s almost cliche, White Light works. And it’s the easiest, most accessible thing you can use for protection. How? Simply visualize whatever you want to protect surrounded by white light. Feel the protection in your body and energy field, and affirm that it is so.
Perimeter Protection
This is a practice that I’ve been doing for decades to protect my home and all inside it. Every night before I sleep, I walk my consciousness around the perimeter of our property. I go slowly, visualizing a powerful boundary of white light glowing all along the border. I then ask angels and spirits of the land to help me maintain the light-filled protection around my home.
That’s it! Simple, but I swear it must work. When I lived in Denver, my neighborhood was plagued with porch pirates (our next door neighbors had multiple packages, bicycles, and a car stolen while I lived there!). Not only did we never have a package stolen, a psychic friend commented on the protection around my home during a reading, without any knowledge of the work I’d done.
To go the extra mile here, you can infuse stones or crystals with your intentions and place one in each corner of your property. Just check back and recharge them often.
Botanical Allies
Plants have long been used for space clearing and protection—especially through their smoke. Burning incense, resins, and dried bundles purifies the air and the energies in your home. When you combine your intentions for clearing and protection with the natural gifts of the plants, you’ll enjoy a powerful experience.
I offer sustainable and potent smoke bundles for clearing and protection in the apothecary. I make these bundles by hand and include a wide variety of plant allies—sages, mugwort, herbs, and high altitude flowers all contribute their unique medicines. These bundles make a nice alternative to the white sage bundles that are so popular today—white sage is vastly over-harvested, and there are local plants everywhere that are just as powerful for cleansing negative entities from your home.
Discernment
The most useful tool in your kit this season is that of discernment. I’ve often seen people get so excited or thrilled by being able to contact the other worlds, that they take any spirit’s word as gospel, assuming that the spirit knows more because of their view from the other side.
Here’s the thing: Not all spirits have your back. Some are tricksters, some are confused, and some are downright mean. If you’re going to intentionally engage with the spirit world on a regular basis, it’s worth developing skills to protect yourself and discern who you’re dealing with. (I have a really fun workshop on this coming soon!)
For now, as you engage with your connection practices this Samhain, just remember to fill and surround yourself with white light. Affirm that you will only allow benevolent spirits into your space and awareness, and keep the perimeter protected. If something doesn’t feel right, call on your angels to help clear it.
With this protection in place, it’s time to celebrate!
Celebrate!
This time of year asks us to shed the guise of normalcy and embrace our dark sides in the funnest, most gluttonous ways possible. Watch that scary movie, dress as your alter ego, and delight your senses with delectable goodies!
Dress up
Back in the day, the Celts would don costumes and wear masks to blend in with the spirits around them. Today, dressing up lets us freely play with self-expression in ways we rarely see throughout the rest of the year.
One of my favorite costumes was my dark forest nymph outfit, an ode to my longstanding relationship with the great goddess Diana. I made an antler head band embellished with bones and roses and decorated a black corset with more dark imagery.
Make some spooky treats
There are a million fun ways to make Halloween-themed treats. This year, I’m playing with black tahini. Yup—black. Made with black sesame seeds, it tastes almost like regular tahini but a little richer and definitely unroasted. But be forewarned--eating this will make your mouth black! (wipe the corners often…)
Wondering what to do with black tahini?
Bake some vegan black tahini cookies or swap regular tahini for black in these healthy honey cookies
Goth Hummus (the author uses black beans, but you can actually find black chickpeas here!)
Make a spooky orange and black hummus duo with my favorite pumpkin hummus
All the Halloween TV
I’ll admit it—I’m a sucker for a night in with spiced wine and Halloween movies on repeat. And my favorites? Really old Disney movies…silly, but yes. Escape to Witch Mountain, Donald Duck’s Trick-or-Treat, and The Watcher in the Woods to name a few.
Also, I haven’t missed a Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror since Bart and I were the same age…gulp!
Craft party
Bejewel that shit.
A group of girlfriends, a couple bottles of wine or giant pot of mulled cider, and a massive amount of craft supplies. This is one of my favorite ways to celebrate any holiday.
Pre-covid days, I hosted a sugar skull painting party in honor of the Dia de los Muertos aspect of this season. Everyone made amazing skulls…and I got carried away with gold and sparkes. As usual.
Carve a Jack O’Lantern
Years ago, I used to teach in English in Japan, and one of my favorite parts was putting together English history lessons of well-known American holidays. (I think I managed to stretch our Halloween lesson over 3 days, ha!) One fun tidbit—the Irish didn’t have pumpkins, so they carved turnips, adding a candle to ward off trickster spirits.
I love keeping this tradition alive. Carve a pumpkin, or even a turnip! I save and roast the seeds, and let the squirrels and deer devour the rest in the days after Halloween (a gruesome sight indeed…poor disappearing pumpkin faces!).
