Enjoy A Happy Samhain - Bright Blessings.

image martha stewart

Some seasonal wisdom from my friend Valerie who is a crystal healer.

Well here we are back again at the end of another cycle of nature, when we are preparing to move into the winter months and the colder weather. The days are darker and it is a time to go within to think very carefully about what we wish to achieve when the sun returns to warm us in the spring.  

For Samhain we make our healing mandala with crystals and tokens from nature like berries and nuts, such as acorns and hazels, found in the woods nearby to us on the common. The mandala is made in the shape of an eight spoked wheel or the wheel of the year in Celtic tradition. It represents the cycle of the seasons and the end and beginning of all creation. 

This time of the year represents the season when the sun gives us less daylight hours and we move into the womb of winter. It is a time of celebration to acknowledge the passing of all those who have gone before us and who will go after us. Remember that one day in the future we will be our families’ ancestors.  In the knowledge that death is but a new beginning, we meditate at Samhain to share this time with our ancestors and future generations of our families. 
  
The calendar marks the end of a solar cycle when we should get our affair in order. A time when fields lay fallow, nature takes a rest and we experience autumn mists with smokey colours in the sky. 

The mischief side of Halloween is there to respect an aspect of the god who wishes to teach us that he will not let us take ourselves too seriously – it is a time to laugh with your friends and community. In the old days apple bobbing, storytelling, cake making and roasting of nuts were part of the evening’s celebrations around the bonfire. 

Samhain also brings us gifts of wisdom, which can be bitter or sweet according to our circumstances and desires. It is now we consider death as an aspect of our lives and it may be that an old plan, habit or aspiration needs to die now. 

We are taught not to call the dead to us on this night, but believe if they join us freely, if they are able to and if they wish to, we should be open to receive this awareness. If a loving spirit should desire to come back and visit you will recognise them in your mind. If they choose not to come just remember them with love and accept their absence. 

Spend time in meditation thinking of friends, family and loved ones who have gone on to greater things. Keep firmly in your mind that the physical isn’t the absolute reality and that our souls never die. 

As you eat pomegranates consider the seeds as being ideas for your next cycle - affirm that they represent plans and creativities that will sprout and grow to provide you with your next personal harvest. 

Make a list of things you consider are standing in your way like anger, sorrow etc, then write them down and burn them in your the fire affirming that they are now in the past. Whatever you have asked for guidance in see it now replaced by new life and a new system whereby we teach do what you will as long as it does not harm another. 

If you can take time to light a candle maybe you can join us in imagining a new world full of peace, love and harmony with food and water available for all. Leave a plate of food outside the home for the souls of the dead, place a candle in the window to guide them to the lands of eternal summer and bury some apples in the earth to feed the ones who have passed on their journey to the light and are awaiting rebirth. 

In the meantime try to be happy, healthy and wise as you go about your daily routine. Most of all be grateful for all you have accomplished and for the ideas which will flow through you from your spirit guides, who come from the light, during the darker nights. Keep warm and snuggly like the seeds within Mother Earth. 

image mollie makes