Unveiling Samhain

Ancient Celebration

Halloween, the American holiday celebrating ghouls and monsters, takes inspiration from both the Mexican festival, “Day of the Dead”, the Catholic “All Saints Day” and “All Soul’s Day”, and the ancient British (and European) event known as Samhain.

All these events share the same date and similar themes - around honouring the cycles of life and death, and celebrating and giving gratitude to the ancestors.

While most people today are familiar with Halloween, the more ancient festival of Samhain is often unknown. Yet, Samhain marks an important threshold on the ancient calendar and is, perhaps, the most sacred event on the ancient Wheel of the Year, one which dives to great depths into the mysteries of life.

It’s a time when we can become aware of both our mortality and our connection with all our ancestors before us, those whose lives made it possible for us to have life. Its also a time when we can explore our psyche, ritually cleansing ourselves and letting go of all that we have outgrown, all that is ready to die within our lives.

Perhaps to lighten the heavy theme or to make death seem less frightening, there has always been an element of trickery involved in the customs marked at Samhain. Many of these customs persist today in the modern festival of Halloween.

Theme of Death

There is no evidence that Samhain was marked in the pre-farming cultures that existed in Britain many thousands of years ago. Our earliest records of the event appear quite late in our history, in the Iron Age. Yet there is much circumstantial evidence to support the existence of a much older celebration.

We know enough of our prehistoric pre-farming ancestors to know they followed a seasonal round, based loosely on following the migrations of animals, birds and fish and the seasonal availability of food growing in the hedgerows.

By late October in the Northern Hemisphere the weather has changed – the days are notably shorter and colder, with intense bouts of extended rain and wind. Many birds, fish and animals have either migrated or are beginning to nest for the winter and food has become scarce on the trees.

For our pre-farming ancestors, meat would have been an important source of food, as during the winter months it is much harder to live off foraged vegetables. Many would have migrated inland in early Autumn, following herds of animals such as deer and wild boar.

At this time of year then, death would have been present, both for prey animals and for the hunters, risking their lives with each hunt.

Moving forward in time, later in prehistory, when people began to settle and depend on crops growing in the fields and domesticated animals in the yard, the theme of death continued.

For it was hard to grow crops in winter, so vegetables tended to be scarce and, partly to avoid feeding the animals the vegetables they needed themselves, farmers often slaughtered many of their animals around this time, providing their families with meat.   

Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that a festival grew up around the theme of death.

Ancestors

Samhain is widely considered to be a festival focused on the veneration of ancestors and a thinning of the veil which exists between worlds. For those who know how to travel the spirit realms however, the veils are always thin.

Yet for many people, the veils to the spirit realm are thin at this time of year, with the energy of death so acutely present, in the land and perhaps with the customs. Many people naturally consider their own mortality and the mystery of life and death with the darkening nights.

Samhain marks a good opportunity to connect with our ancestral roots, particularly our ancient lineage, and feel our deep connection to the wheel of life. Honouring our lives in this way is always important.

However, I would urge caution in connecting with your ancestors, particularly those who may have recently departed.

In many traditional cultures there are rules around mourning the dead, giving consideration to their soul and the sometimes difficult passage to the afterlife. Such rules no longer exist within many modern communities and, unfortunately, much of the knowledge around assisting people to die well and pass on has long been lost.

Many spirits struggle to pass on to the next realm beyond the physical, in an age where spiritual knowledge is limited and practitioners to assist the spirit to pass on are few. These spirits can linger in the land, lost and unhealthy. Many don’t know they have died and can be attached to their living relatives, always wanting to return home to their human lives.

These spirits, known as earthbound spirits, are common around Samhain, simply because giving energy to the dead invites them in, particularly if they are earthbound, as they crave our attention.

Not that all who die are in such a state but there are usually a few hanging around the living at this time of year, when thoughts turn to ancestors and recently departed loved ones, unwittingly giving them energy.

Perhaps, then, earthbound spirits are the real inspiration for Halloween, particularly as they may appear to us in a zombie state.

Scorpio

People have perhaps always looked to the stars to help them understand the world. Over millennia, many foundational stories were passed down to younger generations, who, embellishing the tales over time, added their own understanding of the world.

So it was that the art of astrology was created and today persists with ancient stories held within their heart.

Though many of these tales can be hard for us to understand, given their antiquity, there is much within astrology today that can help us understand the themes embedded within the Wheel of the Year.

Samhain is the time of the sign of Scorpio, a water sign ruling the deep, still waters of the ocean. It’s known to be a challenging energy to navigate but to understand its gifts is to gain greater wisdom about Samhain and why this time of year remains so very important.

As an energy, Scorpio aids us to accept the energy of death and transformation that Samhain brings, by bringing our attention to shadows - particularly what lurks within ourselves.

The energy of Scorpio is relentless at excavating the deep places of the psyche to get to the truth. Are we burying anger about something? Are we holding our tongue? Are we disempowering ourselves unintentionally? Are we pretending we are something we are not? Are we martyring ourselves?

The invitation of Scorpio is to cross the threshold into the darkness to feel our wounds, our deepest fears and insecurities and see how they are playing out in our life. There is richness in the energies of this time if we choose to ride it.

Seen through the lens of Scorpio, the mystery of Samhain becomes clear - the lifting of the veil is not about the veil between the living and the dead but about the one that prevents us from seeing ourselves fully.

The masks we wear to the world we also wear to prevent us from seeing ourselves.

Unveiling Samhain

Nowadays, we may be less focused on seasonal food and feel warm in our insulated and heated homes, but we are still impacted by the change of season and feel the biting cold, rain and wind.

As the clocks turn back in Britain, we become even more aware of the dark, long nights and we may feel reluctant to venture out.

The darkness invites us to delve into inner work and processing, whether we choose it or not. Though, as ever, it will be a less bumpy ride if we ride the wisdom of the seasons.

Sometimes Samhain can bring a dark night of the soul, a spontaneous acknowledgement of something buried deep in our psyche that we haven’t wanted to look at.

We can reframe this as an opportunity - to assess where we are in our life and with our mental health.

The primary opportunity of this time is to prepare for death - to embrace the necessary ending in all things; like the leaves falling from the trees, there is a necessity and grace in letting go.

What are you holding on to in your life? What unhealthy habits or attachments do you persist with? What can you look at differently in your life if you were to change perspective? What can you midwife through the death portal?

As an energy, death is about transformation and is a liminal phase with the potential for profound growth. Its often not as scary as we think, though we find letting go profoundly hard.

As we travel through the portal that is Samhain, with our eyes open, we can become clearer about our winters work; the internal processing that this period offers us along our healing path and our journey through life and death.

The invitation is to dive gently into these energies at Samhain, potentially bringing about the most transformative and healing period of the year.  

Love Samara,

28th October 2024