Samhain is a Death Festival marking the beginning of winter, when all else has died, and the Crone finally takes over. It is the 4th and final of the Greater Fire Festivals. Celebrated on the 1st of May (our Northern Friends celebrate it on October 31st), Samhain is the time when the veil between our world and that of the spirit world is is at its thinnest. Samhain marks the end and beginning of the Witches Year.
This is a time when it is said that the dead can walk, so is the ideal time to contact and communicate with those who we are close to who have passed over. Traditionally, candles are lit and placed in the window to help the spirits find their way. A plate of food may be left outside under the window as an offering to the spirits when they arrive.
This is a good time to set up your altar with pictures of your lost ancestors, or even have an object that they once owned. It is a time to communicate with them, or simply think of them and what thet meant to you whilst you still knew them when they were alive. It is a time to honour them, for without them, you would not be here.
This is also the third and final harvest, when we see the very last crops we sowed at Imbolc and Oestara are harvested and stored for the coming winter months. We are noe rapidly saying goodbye to the Sun God, as he moves slowly once again North. The Earth now prepares itself for sleep, until Spring.
This is a time to in towards ourselves at our own motives, and that of our actions. A time to let go of the old and look forward to the new beginnings. It is a spiritual cleansing of those aspects of our life, which we have grown out of or no longer need. It is a time for divination and looking into the future.
The Earth is becoming cold and barren, and Pagans see Her as the Hecate, the Crone, the Wise One. She is the Dark Mother who devours the God that she may give birth to him again. Here he stays until Yule, where once again he is reborn.
And so the wheel keeps turning.
Hecate, and none but She, is Queen of all living things .
It is through Her that all things live or die.
She is the laughing maiden, the living mother, and the black hag of death.
She is the three and the one.
She smiles and the radiance of the moon, whether it be full or dark, is everywhere
for there is no power like Her power and no living thing can withstand Her power.
For She is anticipation. She is the fulfillment. She is all death. She is with you always.
She was with you in the beginning and shall be with you at the end.
Colours: Black, Orange, Gold, Brown, Silver
Herbs: Rosemary, Apple, Hazel, Wormwood, Allspice, Mugwort, Sage, Mint
Foods: Apples, Nuts, Pumpkins, Poultry, Pork, Wine
Deities: Herne, Osiris, Cailleach, Cerridwen, Hecate, Hades.
Symbols: Black cats, Brooms, Pumpkins, Bones, Pomegranates, Ghosts, Bonfires.
