“…..imagine that you are walking along a pale shimmering path through the dusk. Behind you the last rays of sunset still glimmer upon the horizon, but ahead of you the sky and the world all around you grows darker and darker. All you see is the pale path beneath you feet….” (Danu Forest)

Samhain is a Celtic celebration from October 31-December 20, it is a time of going within yourself and honoring the past, that we may walk forward to another year as the days grow darker and the nights longer; creating a new beginning.

Key Themes (“The Magical Year” by Danu Forest)

death

surrender

stillness

darkness

the shadow

going within

endings and beginnings

crossing the veil

the spirit world

remembrance

ancestors

introspection

the unconscious

The image that comes to mind when I think of Samhain is a person wondering in the dark for a few moments, completely unable to see. Would it do any good to try to look around outside of yourself to find the way? No, you can’t see. But you could begin to go inwards and try to see, try to remember which way you took, try to focus on how you got to where you are, and most importantly: don’t panic! Sometimes the answers are not outside of ourselves, often times they are waiting inside of us, to be called on and tapped into. Given, we don’t have a google maps inside of us, but we do have a mighty powerful spiritual compass that may surprise you with it’s power and pull. Our entire body is one big computer system, running from the brain and the heart, tap into it, ask yourself questions, meditate on them, see what you come up with and WRITE IT DOWN. As Danu says, “Samhain is a time of renewal when life retreats within the earth, within the doors and within the psyche, to find completion and contemplation. It is the blank page upon which the coming year will be written.” Imagine yourself just as the earth, growing dark, going within. Does the earth crumble and fall apart every year? No. It renews itself, it needs a time of darkness. Only one hemisphere is dark, they alternate, and soon enough it will be our time to shine again. It is our time to share the sun and to go within ourselves and see what questions and answers lay waiting for us and the coming year.

The theme of ‘balance’ is the hail mary during Libra season, and that is exactly what Samhain (the Sun is in Scorpio during Samhain, but in Libra the weeks just before) is asking us to do: to balance the day and the night, the mortal and the immortal, the flesh and the spirit. The Sun moves from Libra to Scorpio during this time: we learned who we are in Leo (I Will), we refined ourselves and our skills in Virgo (I analyze), we balanced our own passions with those of others in Libra (I Balance) and now in Scorpio (I Desire) we find the depths of our passions, the intensity of our desires and we begin to know exactly what it is that keeps us going, that which tantalizes our spirit. We are called to remember who and what has come before us, our ancestors and lessons, that we might learn from them before we walk into the future. It is a time of silence and contemplation, just as Cancer (I Feel) warms our hearts and we feel the safety of our home before Leo (I Will) has us break out and shine for all of the world to see. This is the time before the sun shines and we dance on the stage of the world, this is the sunset that we watch from our front porch, silent and in awe.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, as above so below: we are not just flesh, we are spirit; we are not just the surface of things, there is a much deeper place. The veil is being lifted during this time and all of our ancestors are easily able to reach us now, we just need to listen. Those who have passed are not here to haunt us, as some would like to believe (and if you believe it is so, I am sure you have manifested that reality in some way). The dead and all of our ancestors are our allies and they are able to teach us some of the greatest lessons of our lives. They went before us to show us the way, and one day we will pass from this earth and be the ones lighting the way for our children’s children. The dead is not always a person, sometimes the dead is an idea or mode that we have outgrown our has become harmful to us. What did you learn? What do you want differently? Who are you thankful for? How do you honor the past and those who have gone before you?

“…….When you are ready step forward, trusting in the path beneath your feet. A cold winter wind blows into your face as you go, billowing around you, but there is no other sounds, other than the beating of your heart in your ears. You walk slowly, into the darkness, until you begin to hear a very faint chime, like silver bells, and you notice faint glimmers of light ahead of you, growing stronger with every step. Slowly but surely the sounds grow, and your eyes focus more clearly – you see that far in the distance the stars are coming out, and you realize that what you hear is their silver song, chiming out across the night…..” (excerpts from Danu Forest’s “Samhain Stellar Meditation”)