Samhain Thoughts
Today is Samhain (sow’-en or sometimes sow-een’) the Celtic festival of the final harvest, and the time when the Veil Between the Worlds is at its thinnest. It is now the halfway point between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice, and it is the time when we turn inward. Our outdoor work is winding down to its finish, and our focus turns indoors. Likewise, our minds turn introspective. The focus at this time of the year is on gratitude for all the blessings we have harvested throughout the year, as it has been for the first and second of the three harvest festivals. But this time we go deeper. We think about the fact that everything we must harvest in order to stay alive, be it vegetable or fruit or meat, literally gives its life to us. And that makes us think of the nature of life, and of death.
And we go deeper. We have many loved ones on the other side of the Veil, and this is the time of year when they can reach us most easily. We talk to them and about them, and honor them by remembering them, and also by not treating them as if they are old news, but present and alive as ever, even if a bit harder to experience. It’s so subtle, their energy now. We have to go very very quiet to be with them, and our lives are seldom devoid of noise.
The third thing I love to focus on at Samhain is divination. I love to do a tarot spread for the coming year. There’s a spread I have around here somewhere called the Clock Spread, where you put the cards in a circle at all the 12 hours of a clock, and let the hours represent the months of the year. The center card will reveal the overall theme of the year. But there are lots of other divinations you could do. Drip candle wax into water and read the shapes it forms. Study the lines of your palm, or read your own tea leaves, gaze into a crystal ball while quieting your mind.
We’re in the peak of the Taurid Meteor Shower as well, and tonight would be a wonderful night to make a wish on a meteor as it shoots past you. I believe in magic. There is nothing else that explains how a girl like me got the life I now have. Nothing but magic. It’s real, and we truly are in control of our lives. So, do something magical today. Make your own ritual. Meditate. Throw some rune stones. Any magical act will added boosts of energy from the meteors, from the thin Veil, and from the powerful energy of Samhain.