Samhain: The end and the beginning

It’s darker. It’s colder. It’s hauntingly beautiful. It’s haunted. This is the time of the year when I start to feel that pull, that itch to make a change. To let something die.

I always seem to make big life-changing decisions in October/November. I started and ended jobs, got married, bought a house, adopted pets… I even enrolled for yoga teacher training around this time three years ago and will graduate with my advanced 500-hour certification next month. Scorpio season doesn’t mess around. There are no superficial thoughts or decisions. Just depth and hard truths. Sacrificing the mundane for real and purposeful change.

Humans have an interesting relationship with death. Most of our decisions and actions are based around a fear of death. We aim to live forever, whether in body or reputation. We tend to avoid difficult change or endings. How many of us have been caught in stagnancy or routine out of fear? *Raises hand* How many of us want change but are too attached to what we know?

What if you had one day to do anything you wanted? To really let your freak flag fly? What would you do? Why?

Our fascination with the “what ifs” and the mysterious shadow of the unknown is probably why we are so drawn to holidays like Samhain, which, to put it bluntly, is about death. We get an opportunity to be someone else, go somewhere else, dance with the shadow, explore the depths, and face our fears. Those of us who are intuitive can also feel the veil thinning and our intuitions deepening. I know for me personally, the intuitive messages and dreams that are coming to me could not be clearer. We are drawn into that heightened ability to communicate with and explore other realms. We all feel it, some perhaps more than others, and we all seek answers.

Samhain (pronounced SOW-in) is where all of our Halloween traditions come from. It is celebrated on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 in the northern hemisphere, and the official marker is sunset on Oct. 31. On the wheel of the year, everything ends on Samhain and everything begins. The life sprouting from the earth begins to die and sleep. The trees lose their foliage. The sun lowers in the sky. Summer and the light half of the year is officially over. The real work of this season is to turn inside, let go of the doing, and rest. No matter how modern or technologically advanced we become, we are all just guests here on planet Earth, and we will always be beholden to her shifts. Winter has officially begun.

With these changes, it’s natural for people to get depressed, anxious, or melancholy. Earth is asking us to look at what needs to be released and let go. The season is asking us to move forward and make decisions, now. So if you are having a difficult time, ask yourself: Is there something in your life that needs to be released? What do you need to accomplish in order to rest with Earth? What small or big actions can you take to align more with your heart? Your purpose? What phases of your life need to die out? How can you strengthen your relationships with the things/people you can’t possibly lose? How can you be more in flow with the natural cycles around you and inside you? Now is the time for finality.

Perhaps the practice of wearing a mask or a costume on Halloween isn’t so much about taking the opportunity to be someone or something else. Maybe it’s more about showing a piece of who you are. A piece that you normally keep hidden. Samhain can be this incredible opportunity to witness everyone at their most true, vulnerable, dark, and beautiful.

You can fight it. Or, you can let your freak flag fly. :)

To close, I’ll share a powerful meditation that one of my teachers, Athena, offered a few days ago:

Think of everything you love and fear, everything that inspires you, and everything you feel a magnetic pull towards. 

Then ask yourself… Why?