Samhain

One of the first lessons I learned on my spiritual journey was the wheel of the year, a way to keep track of time by the natural world - the equinoxes, solstices, and the cross-quarter days (Imbolc, Beltaine, Lammas, Samhain). 

It would be easy to flatten this following into a rote, two dimensional cliché - fall, winter, spring, summer - with their ascribed meaning and symbols  always the same year in and year out. 

But after 30 years of following this rhythm I’m in awe of the nuance, subtleties, and differences that each season brings year after year. 

This is my 48th Halloween and no two have been the same. There maybe whispers of the years past, imprints of what the season represents and holds. But it’s impossible to meet each Halloween exactly the same, because I am not the same year after year. Yes the basic blueprint of me is constant, but constant does not mean static. We are not static beings no matter how much we so want to be.  

So while we can say fall is a time of pumpkins, candy, and leaves falling, there is so much more variation from year to year.  

Lately noticing the subtleties is what gets me through the day. Often as we move through our spiritual lives the signs and guideposts become more and more wisps and whispers. If we continually expected the very loud moments again and again we would soon find ourselves disappointed or on a quest to find bigger, better, more and more or what could be called spiritual greed. 

But if we move out of cliché and into the realities of life - paradox, complexities, nuance, and contradictions, these qualities lead us into the quieter and deeper layers of our being. And there we might find more contentment and less of the grabbing quality that comes with bigger and better. 

This is what the Samhain season invites us into. When the veil between the spiritual and the material thins, things may not get more showy and obvious but quieter and steeped in the unknown. It’s the invitation into a whisper and a stillness. An invitation that doesn’t rest on only the logical, linear, and tangible.

What a reprieve this season offers us from our modern expectations. 

We are midway between fall equinox and winter solstice during this first week of November. We are moving to the more quiet and barren (vulnerable) time of year. This time is an invitation to begin the travels to the deep within. 

So light the fires and let them whisper to you. Feel the warmth of your tea (or pumpkin spice latte) mug and let it gently soothe you again and again. Invite these simple rituals to help you navigate your own internal landscape. What is inside you that needs tending to at this moment? What is whispering that has yet to be heard? How are your feelings showing up and asking to be witnessed? 

Invite spirit to come and sit with you in silence and notice how the release from the expectation of answers offers freedom for both you and spirit to just be. Let this season burrow inside you, so as the winter approaches you are more and more comfortable with your tenderness and in turn the world’s tenderness. 

Blessings, Valerie ​