The Feast of Samhain

Every year around this time we who follow the ways of the 'old religion' gather to celebrate our ancestors, remember our beloved dead and welcome the new souls who have been born into babies in the last year. The Feast of Samhain - pronounced sow'in - is the ancient pagan ceremony that predates the Christian All Souls Day and is the root of many of the traditions that have grown up around Halloween. The witches celebrate their new year, the ghosts of the recently departed are helped in their crossing to the otherworld, and over the sunless sea on the Isle of Apples, we find our ancestors feasting and dancing the spiral of life and death.

Large community rituals celebrating Samhain bring together families and friends who gather to build altars to the ancestors, to the spirits of the earth, the air, the fire and the water, to the allies in other realms and to the animals that share our lives as pets. Smaller gatherings often take the form of an Ancestor dinner where favorite foods and drinks, songs and stories of our beloved ancestors are shared.

These last weeks as I become aware of the shortening days, the early dark of the evenings, the brisk cold morning air and the slow turning of nature's growth cycle into rest and regeneration, I sense my own focus moving inward. I anticipate with pleasure the journey through the dark months of winter, having time for reading and reflection, sitting by the fire with cups of tea, making big pots of hearty winter soup, spending time on the jigsaw puzzle - a permanent fixture in our home for the next six months. Lingering in my mind is my visit with my beloved ancestors, those who watch me as I move through my cycles in this life, offering guidance and support. I look forward to spending more time with them as winter's cloak wraps me in the stillness of the earth's repose.