This is a series of articles dedicated to earth based spiritual practices, aimed for people that are healers, or are working with high frequency energies to reconnect with the earth, nature, and thus ground themselves to the cycles that mother earth goes through the year, hoping these practices will assist in balancing out the sometimes taxing high vibrational work they’re engaged with, with the calm energies of nature observance.

In the Neopagan spiritual circles, the holiday based on the Neopagan Wheel of the Year called Samhain is observed on November 1^st each year.

Samhain (pronounced “SAH-win”) is the last holiday of the Wheel of the Year. It also marks the end of the year in some Neopagan traditions.

Samhain is mainly associated with the idea of the thinning of the veil between the living and the dead. So, it is mostly dedicated to the concept of honoring our ancestors and coming to terms with our own mortality.

Samhain (pronounced “SAH-win”) is the last holiday of the Wheel of the Year. It also marks the end of the year in some Neopagan traditions.

It is also a time that marks the beginning a period between November 1st and December 21st, that can be characterized by a sense of silencing, because nature, is getting ready for its sleep all throughout the winter, and in the old days in Europe the livestock that wouldn’t make it through the winter would be slaughtered and their meat stored and the land after the last harvest would be left to recuperate for the next cycle.

In this article we’re going to explore the themes of the holiday, that have to do with honoring our ancestors, facing the idea of death, and the idea of life force retrieving till spring when it restores back, along with practices that will honor the spirit of the dead.

Welcoming the Energies of Samhain

A Message for the Spiritually Sensitive

For all of us who are sensitives, and empaths or sensitive to the spiritual energies around us, Samhain signifies the time where the thinning of the veil ask us to take advantage of the fact that is time for divining messages by communicating with the unseen world much easier energetically than the other months of the year.

It is also a day that reminds us of the idea of descending into the underworld, as the Lord or the Male principle (in some Neopagan traditions), dies and enters the underworld, an opportunity for us to metaphorically descent to the underworld of our own souls.

The idea of a place where the souls go when we leave our bodies is ancient, and in the Neopagan practices the Underworld is the place where our ancestors rest.

To me this calls for a special type of ritual where I like to do divinations with my tarot cards, after I ask the assistance of a psychopomp god or goddess (a being that is believed to have free access in entering and exiting the Underworld and also guide the souls that died how to get there) to help me connect with my own ancestral bloodline and ask their guidance for the rest of the year.

Why This Season Matters More Than Ever

Samhain, as I mentioned above, is also the day that signifies a period where we are called to rest and prepare for the winter to come.

In this restful place, we as empaths, sensitives, or spiritually aligned people, can find a balm for our souls, an antidote to the overstimulation that we experience throughout our everyday lives as the world around us demands our attention from all places, increased productivity, and to keep up with the pace the modern life.

Samhain, as I mentioned above, is also the day that signifies a period where we are called to rest and prepare for the winter to come.

This time is a good time for us to recharge, and one way that we can recharge our batteries is to dedicate a day or two to stepping away from the Internet and our phones and only use our phones to communicate.

This digital detox can help us restore our sense of balance, and also the health of our overstimulated nervous system.

Embracing Endings as Sacred Beginnings

Another important theme surrounding Samhain is the idea of death. There cannot be any sort of new beginning without first releasing what is keeping us stack to the past, by witnessing its death.

Death is not only the transit that a person’s soul goes through at the end of their lives, but it is experienced as “small deaths” that have to do with losses, unachieved dreams, or the ending of relationships.

Another important theme surrounding Samhain is the idea of death.

You can honor this, by doing this small ritual during the night of October 31st by lighting a black candle (a color that symbolizes death, and mystery), and having prepared a list of things written on a piece of paper that have “died” during the year and reading them aloud as an offering to your ancestors and Spirit, and then burning the paper as a symbolic gesture of release.

5 Soulful Samhain Traditions & Rituals to Embrace This Sacred Season

What follows is a list of 5 ideas and some practices that you can engage in, in order to understand and honor Samhain, that will help you attune with the themes and the energies of this day, that have to do with the idea of the thinning of the veil between the living and the dead, death, and connecting with your ancestors.

1. Samhain Origins & the Power of the Dark Half of the Year

Samhain, sometimes called the “Witches’ New Year”, signifies the idea of entering the dark half of the year.

At the older times, at north northwest Europe, this was the time that the final crops were gathered and the land was left to recuperate, and also livestock that wouldn’t make it through the winter, was being slaughtered and preserved for the cold months to come and also to appease the spirits of the land in order for them to survive during the harsh days of winter.

Samhain, sometimes called the “Witches’ New Year”, signifies the idea of entering the dark half of the year.

In contrast to the secular new year that takes place on January the 1st, where people are celebrating, Samhain represents the day of acknowledging what has passed, what has ended, and also reflects our own sense of letting go and turning within.

In the spirit of Halloween (at least at the places where it is celebrated even though it has recently globalized by commercialization) take some time and visit a cemetery, as an act of honoring those who have come before us, and not as an act of experiencing cheap thrills as most people would do when visiting a cemetery during the holiday.

2. Engaging in DIY Divination Practices with Natural Tools

A beautiful practice that you can engage with during Samhain is to create your own divine national system by acquiring items you can find outdoors, things like acorns, snail shells, twigs with unusual shapes, feathers, etc.

You can then take each item that you have acquired, and by devoting some time to meditate on each (some weeks before Samhain arrives) write down anything that comes up intuitively to your mind that you can associate with this item.

You can then prepare a space, like a cloth, or even a cardboard where you have drawn a structure, like a circle divided in 12 where each part signifying an area of your life, and when the time comes with intention, ask a question and a cast the items onto this surface.

Then you can study where each item fell and how it landed, and also its proximity to other items that you cast, and write everything that will come up into your mind.

3. Creating Rituals That Celebrate Ancestry and Spiritual Legacy

Samhain is the time of the year when we honor our ancestors, the people who came before us, and who are the reason that we have a physical presence on the earth.

As the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest during this day, it is mostly appropriate for us to engage in acts that honor our ancestral roots, for this is also a grounding act, by connecting through your ancestors with the underworld, a place or a space that played a huge role for me in deeply grounding myself into the earth, and into my physical being.

Samhain is the time of the year when we honor our ancestors, the people who came before us, and who are the reason that we have a physical presence on the earth.

A simple act of honoring my ancestry is to leave a plate for each member that is dear to my heart that passed away from the feast that is prepared to celebrate this holiday. The next day I discard the food mindfully in places where stray animals can find it post.

4. Celebrating Samhain Through Cottage Magic with Rituals for Home and Hearth

Cottage magic can become an important act of celebrating the day. Cottage magic is a practice where you apply intention in every aspect of keeping a household.

You can honor the day with a simple cleaning of the house with the intention of clearing the surrounding energies, followed by decorations, and culminating with preparing food for the feast dedicated to Samhain.

Cottage magic can become an important act of celebrating the day. Cottage magic is a practice where you apply intention in every aspect of keeping a household.

In this way, you can perform manifesting acts where each ingredient that you put into your cooking and baking has the intention of honoring your ancestors and asking for their blessing.

5. Folklore, Apples, and the Language of Spirit

Since the Neopagan movement was born out of Neo-Druidry and Wicca, to honor the roots of the movement, it is appropriate to turn to folklore based around the British Isles and northern Europe, from which these two streams of pagan revivalism stem.

Of course, this is optional, but for me, knowing the history of any spiritual path that you are engaging in is the best way to avoid any type of appropriation of cultural elements that are not part of your own ethnicity.

So, based on the Celtic origins of Neo-Druidry and Wiccan practices during Samhain, you can engage in using apples as a divination tool. Apples are connected to the sacred Isle of Avalon, a phrase of Celtic origin which means the Isle of the Apples, and it was said that this was a place where the souls went for healing and rejuvenation after leaving their bodies.

Here are three ways you can use apples in celebration of Samhain:

1. Peel an apple and throw the peel behind you. It is said that whatever letter the peel forms might be the initial of the name of your future lover.
2. You can also take a slice of an apple, eat it before bed and ask for guidance and blessing through dreams.
3. Bury an apple at a crossroad, or place it on your altar as an offering to the wandering spirits of the dead and your ancestors.

Conclusion

Samhain is the time when, in some earth-based traditions, the year literally ends. It is surrounded by themes of endings, connecting with the people that have walked before us, and ideas around death and renewal.

Beyond the over-commercialized Halloween, this blessed day is there as a reminder for us of the idea that everything is a cycle with a beginning and an end, both important for new cycles to be born.

Till next time, take care.