Samhain: Sacred, Somber, and Powerful

Samhain is soon upon us, and it feels like we have been celebrating for weeks now. Actually, we have! The build-up to Samhain starts weeks in advance, as the Wheel of the Year moves toward the end of our Witches’ year. Everyone is full of activity, plans, and excitement. Tied in with the general euphoria of Halloween, October has its own buzzy, hyper feel. #PaganOctober is a very real, very full, very busy month.

Underneath all the hustle and bustle, there still remains the basics: the veil is thin, ancestors feel close, we draw inward, and we do the work. Tending to each other, tending to our community, celebrating, focusing, working, pondering. We partake in ritual, begin work on our winter apothecaries, finish out our gardens, attend community events, honor our beloved dead, and more. The list is long. And I am sure I don’t even cover all that others do.

Samhain is not just a day, it is a season: sacred, somber and powerful. We create ancestor altars, commune with them, honor our beloved dead, take part in ritual, and gather in community. This year was no different, yet I noticed a deepening of our community connection, a deepening of other’s practices, and more attention being paid to this time of year more than ever.

For myself, I devoted the entire month to my grandmother, my Oma. It became a cozy ritual, where I would spend part of the mornings with her, adding coffee to my ancestor altar (a beverage of choice for many of us in my family line) mostly spending time with her in quiet solitude. I felt her love across time, and I know she appreciated my gratitude for all that she had done for me in her lifetime. It centered and grounded me, as I moved through the month. It culminated with me feeling a bit sickly recently, and I turned to her tried and true chicken noodle soup (I swear I heard her muttering about me adding too many noodles). I felt less alone, more secure, much loved, and feeling much better after I had her soup.

My fellow witches were busy with their own practices and activities. Honestly, I marvel at the energy we all seem to have, for in addition to work and families, I have friends who are writing books about their practices, starting moon journals, reading cards for others, planning events, arranging rituals, taking care of their community, and doing shadow work. They are working with the last harvests of their garden, leading workshops on kitchen witchery, making fire ciders and elderberry syrups and tinctures. It is a busy, active time, before we head into the darkening of the days. I will remember these days, filled with candlelight and dazzlingly blue skies, changing leaf colors, alternate cold and hot temperatures, windy evenings, foggy mornings, and the quiet, respectful silence as we participated in our local Ancestor Vigil.

Indeed, this is a powerful time. As the world seems more and more chaotic, the work we witches do helps heal this bruised and battered planet. We support each other locally and across the miles, sharing recipes and rituals, stories and songs. We check in on each other, offer healing energies and suggestions. I have noticed the stronger sense of purpose, and the deepening connection between us as we do the work. The work that is sacred, powerful, nourishing and emphatic. We do the work because we can, and because we must.

Someone I know recently asked me, “When did you decide to become a witch?” I responded, “I didn’t decide. I just realized I always was one.” These practices I have been doing in some form or another most of my life, yet I didn’t have language for it. I know many of us feel the same. Now that I know more of the language, I speak it daily, in personal practice, and among my peers. I am grateful for this most of all, this Samhain season, as I am appreciative for all the other parts that make up this busy, hectic, fulfilling, gratifying, somber time. May your Samhain be filled with all of this, as we look towards the darkness of winter, and may the bright memories of Samhain carry you forward to Yule and beyond.