Samhain – Page 2 – Natalie J. Case

It is that time of year again, as the veil thins and the spirits of the dead move through the land and the world remembers that witches exist. Sure, we’re around all the time, but mostly people forget until Samhain approaches, and then suddenly we’re meant to perform our witchness for them.

Okay, so witchness isn’t a word, I get that, but still it’s not that they want to understand who we are, what we do and all that…they want us to be a “witch,” to live up to their expectations of what a witch actually is.

I identify as a witch. I have for quite some time. My daily life is pretty mundane: I work, I write, I travel (having just gotten home from Denver and a conference for women/nonbinary in SFF). On occasion, I commune with the spirit world, light a few candles on my altars.

Come Samhain, I dress up in costume and participate in the secular traditions of Halloween, as much as allowed by my living situation and workplace allowances (tomorrow I’ll be dressed as a Jedi for work)…then I come home and I light a few candles, set out some food to entice the beloved ancestors to stop by my house, and I read or watch movies until it’s time for bed. I may even open a bottle of wine or whiskey, pour out a little for the ancestors and such.

If there is time, I offer up tarot readings, because it’s a good time of year for it.

But, I’m a witch all year, not just at Samhain. And I do these things (minus the dressing up, though I do that sometimes just for fun) all the time. I’m not performing my witchness for anyone, I’m just being a witch.

All that said, Samhain is a time to look back, and look forward. It is a time of reflection on what has been and a time of planting seeds for what is to come. The old year ends, the wheel turns. Summer fades and Autumn settles us in to prepare for Winter. It is a sacred night when the harvest is done and the feast prepared.

And it is a night when kids of all ages dress up as their favorite super hero, princess or space man, skipping from house to house in echo of the past, and we, witch or not, praise them for their clever disguises and offer them candy and other treats as recompense for their tacit agreement to leave off the curses they might otherwise feel compelled to whisper into the night.

So, blessings to you, in this season of the witch. May your final harvest be plentiful and feed you well through the winter season. May your fallow fields lie unspoiled and resting until the time comes to plant. May you dream the dreams of your people and may you commune with your beloved dead in peace.

Photo by Paige Cody on Unsplash

As I am writing this, I am looking at tomorrow’s holiday with a new perspective of sorts. I’ve always loved Halloween, from my earliest memory. It was a fun holiday, a chance to become something besides your self, and of course, there was all the candy!

As a new Pagan many years ago it took on new meaning. I celebrated Samhain as I imagine a lot of new Pagans do. I did a little research, I borrowed traditions from paths that seemed to get it right, and I threw myself into celebrating this holiday of the dead.

But what I didn’t really have, or understand, was any real connections to my “beloved dead” or my “ancestors”…I never really had a strong sense of family connections beyond my immediate family and they’re immediate family (mother, father, siblings…aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents). I had never known my mother’s father and at the time I chose my Pagan path, the only people in my life who had died were my father’s mother and a childhood friend.

Still, I had a strong draw toward honoring the dead. My love of old cemeteries also goes back to my childhood and my interest in the spirit world was part of what drew me to Paganism to begin with.

Over the last few years, my religious path has changed some…nothing drastic, but if your faith doesn’t grow with you as you grow then your faith can die. I found myself digging into my family tree, into the history of me as it were, and discovered a feeling of connection with several ancestors that I had never known.

Two years ago, I attended a class in bone reading as divination. It had a strong emphasis on calling on the beloved dead to assist. It was after that class that I set up a small altar with pictures of those ancestors, and in the two years since I have added images of those who have passed more recently, not necessarily family of my blood, but family of my heart.

This Samhain, after I go to work in my Raven costume, I will spend an evening in quiet contemplation and while I can’t really have a bonfire like I’d like, I will light as many candles as I deem safe and invite those beloved dead to visit. I may even throw some bones and see if they speak to me.

Whether you celebrate Halloween, Samhain or Dia de los Muertos, may your day be filled with blessings and sweet things.

Tag: Samhain

season of the witch

samhain and the dead