October’s Ritual - Samhain
I am so excited to share our ritual for October all about celebrating, honouring and embracing Samhain.
For those who don’t know, Samhain is a Gaelic festival celebrated the eve of October 31st into November 1st. Samhain is where Halloween got its roots from.
I want to emphasise that this is not about religion. This is about a lifestyle, a practice, an honouring of the seasons and the cycles and the energy of nature. So, although Samhain is a Gaelic Pagan ritual, a tradition and holiday, that does not mean that you have to practice paganism or that it has anything to do with religion.
If you want to think about this in the framework of a Halloween ritual, that is beautiful and wonderful and magical as well. As always, take what feels good for you - form this into your life, and do what feels authentically, intuitively, intentionally aligned for you.
Samhain marks the end of the harvest season and the end of summer and the beginning of winter or the “darker” half of the year.
It also marked the Celtic new year or what some people call the witches new year. On this day, the Celtics, or the pagans, believed the veil between the living and dead is especially thin, which allows spirits to visit the living.
If you want to hear more details about the traditions and roots of Samhain, tune into the podcast to get the full story. We also go into the Human Design gates present at this time and therefor what energy we can expect to be present within and around us on this holiday.
In general, Samhain is a time to honour our ancestors, those who have passed, and even older versions of ourselves we are ready to let go of.
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And now, let’s get into the details of the ritual.
Setting the Scene
A really powerful way to begin the ritual is to repeat this mantra or this intention that honours the sacred celebration, traditions and roots of this festival. The intention is —
“It is the end of the harvest, the last days of light and sun, and the cold nights wait on the other side for us. We thank the earth for all it has given us this season, and yet we look forward to winter, a time of sacred darkness.”
Saying that out loud to yourself or to the group that you're with to open up your ritual helps you connect to the energy of Samhain and to the energy of nature and the shifting seasons.
Altar Suggestions
Ether - This is a beautiful time to honour and welcome in your ancestors. You can bring in anything honouring the spirit realm, such as pictures of your ancestors or loved one’s who have passed. You can even create an Ancestor’s Altar, dedicating your whole altar to your ancestor’s.
Fire - Samhain is known as a fire holiday, therefore bringing fire into your ritual is extra important and impactful. Perhaps you put one candle for each ancestor you’re honouring, or a candle to represent a past version of yourself you’re letting go of. As you light the candles you can say your ancestors names out loud, or welcome in their presence and energy. You can also light a bonfire or do this ritual by a fire.
Air - our recommended incense for this ritual are sage, rosemary and pine. See the herbal companions section for more details.
Earth - Samhain is all about connecting with nature. As your engaging in your nature walk as part of your Yoga Therapy practices (see below) collect anything from nature that is calling to you. This could be pinecones, leaves, sticks, shells - anything that feels significant and grounding to you.
Water - Grab a beautiful goblet or glass of water and put it outside to sit overnight. This way it is being infused with the energy of this time and spirits in the air. Place this on your altar.
Yoga Therapy Tools
Nature Meditation Walk -
Find time when you can go outside in silence to take a walk. Preferably with no phones or technology with you. As you walk, notice something you can smell, hear, feel and see that represents the shift in seasons. This is a perfect time for you to pick up pieces from nature calling to you that you can add to your altar. Notice how your connection to nature and your intuition feels as you walk around.
Standing Asana -
There are no strict rules or guidelines here - tune in to what standing postures may feel good for you in this moment. This could be tree pose, this could be warrior one, warrior two, you can even do sun salutations if that is in your practice. It doesn’t even have to be structured, you could simply sway and dance and move freely, or stand in tadasana - your feet planted firmly on the earth and your arms at your side. The goal is to feel rooted to the earth. Any standing posture that can ground you into the present moment, get you moving a bit and feel you connected to the earth, rooted to the earth.
After you have moved through your standing poses, start to ease into child's pose. If that is not accessible or feeling good to you today, you can lay on your back, you can lay on your side, you can sit in a chair - find a posture that feels easeful and restful. If you're able to, rest your forehead on the earth. You can even lay on your stomach and place both hands under your forehead so your forehead is connecting to the earth in some way.
You want to connect to the ground, connect to your intuition, connect to the spirits.
When you're ready, flip over and end in Shavasana, which is corpse pose. This posture represents complete surrender, release, and rest.
Visualisation -
If you’d like, you can stay in Shavasana for your visualisation or find a meditative posture that is comfortable for you. I will give a brief description of the visualisation here but you can find more details on the podcast. Further, use this as a guideline and make this visualisation your own.
To begin, close your eyes. Notice where you are rooted to the earth. Whether it's your sit bones, your back, or your feet planted on the ground.
Wherever you are touching the earth, visualise roots coming out and grounding you deep into the earth, holding steady and strong. Think about the summer season - harvest season - that we are coming from and the flowers that blossomed and the leaves that grew and all that was harvested and abundant during that time.
Now, think of yourself moving and transitioning into winter. The leaves are starting to fall off, and layers are starting to shed, but your roots are still holding steady and strong. In fact, they're deepening and strengthening. And feel yourself soften. Soften your shoulders, soften your face, soften deeper into your body, soften deeper into the earth.
Think about how you are going to soften more throughout this winter season, as you rest and replenish, how the seeds that you are now planting are going to be solidified. How you are going to nourish them so that later they can blossom and bloom.
Ask yourself - What seeds am I planting in my soil this season? How can I continue to grow? How can I continue to dig in and deepen my roots?
When you are ready, take these questions and whatever comes from this visualisation with you and journal about it.
Herbal Companions (make sure you source all of your herbs ethically, and locally when possible)
Mugwort - This herb helps connect you to the deep wisdom that you have inside of you. It balances you, both promoting internal balance, emotional balance, and energetic balance. It promotes steady energy and calms nerves. Mugwort helps bring your dreams into clear focus. It connects you to your inner wisdom and that which you desire.
Mullein - Mullein provides protection against "evil" spirits. It’s associated with the fire element, supports health, increases courage, brings out your internal light.
Rosemary - Rosemary stimulates your mind, improves your memory, and helps you gain clarity and strengthen your focus on what is in front of you.
Sage - Sage is known for returning you back to your intuition. It helps bring you back to your centre when you need to make a decision, aligning you with a clear headed and calm bodied path to clarity.
Pine - Pine has so many benefits, but here the ultimate goal is to connects you to nature and this seasonal shift.
Journal Prompts
What is my relationship like with my ancestors?
What is my relationship like with those I have lost?
What is my relationship like with death? With spirits? With the unseen and unknown?
What is my relationship like with winter?
What messages do my ancestors want me to receive - journal stream of consciousness, let whatever comes up come up.
Reflections
Am I feeling fully nourished and resourced from the summer harvest as we enter winter?
What do I need to bring into my life to support myself throughout the winter season?
How can I celebrate and embrace all seasons and cycles of life?
When you’ve finished, write down something you're ready to release and burn it (safely) in the fire.
Intentions
Based on your journaling and reflections, what is being revealed to you? What will serve you and nourish you as you enter Autumn and ultimately the winter season?
Create a one sentence mantra.
From this mantra choose one word.
Write this word and/or mantra down somewhere you can look at it every day. Underneath write down at least three action steps that will help you move towards this intention.
Prioritise this word / action / mantra for the amount of time that you have decided to prioritise this mantra - whether it’s for Samhain, for the rest of Fall, through Winter, or the next New or Full Moon... whatever feels right for you.
Create it in the present tense so when you say it, focus on it, see it, you can feel it as if it is happening in the present moment.
Completing the ritual
To finish your ritual, you can repeat the same mantra that we shared at the beginning of the ritual.
Typically, to end my rituals, I place a hand on my heart, repeat my intention to myself three times, and say thank you three times. Then I say this ritual is now complete, and I blow out my candle.
That signifies the end of the ritual.
As always these are just suggestions - do this ritual in whatever capacity feels good for you. Run everything by your intuition.
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Samhain is a truly special time; there is magick in the air. What if you let yourself lean into that, believe in that and trust that? What if you let that magic intertwine with the magic within you? What if you got curious about the messages that come through to you through this ritual, and the energy that you feel, without needing to explain or justify it?
I would love to hear how this goes for you, how it feels, anything that came up. I hope it helped deepen your connection to yourself, sparked some insights, and inspired you to live intuitively wild.
Until next time, stay intuitively wild 🌙
xx,
~ Rachel
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