Halloween and the Tarot

The 31^st October brings us Halloween, one of my favourite times of year, the leaves are changing and the nights are drawing in, not everybody’s favourite I know but I love the colours and the cosiness that the Autumn brings, not to mention a great excuse for a night next to an open fire, lighting some candles and a lovely hot chocolate with marshmallows!

I have always been drawn to this time of year and I can remember as a small child sneaking out of bed to look out of my window at midnight to see if there were any witches riding on their broomsticksJ. Obviously there are much more serious meanings behind Halloween and it is a special time in the Pagan calendar where they refer to this time as Samhain and celebrate the end of the harvest and honour the dead. This is not my area of expertise however so I will leave this to someone more knowledgeable than I to write about.

For me it has always been more light-hearted, bonfires, apple bobbing, making toffee apples and fudge, these days things seem to have progressed down the trick or treat route that they have going on in the USA it’s not everyone’s cup of tea I know but the way I look at it is - plenty of not so good things in the world so why not take every opportunity you can to have fun!

Traditionally Halloween is known as the night that the veil between the everyday word and the spirit world is at its thinnest, I believe it makes readings done at this time of year especially significant. If I were only going to have a reading done once a year I would probably go for Halloween! In many belief systems this is seen as the ending of one year and therefore the beginning of another so a great time to reflect on what has passed and what is coming up.   It’s a great night to light some candles and burn some sage to cleanse the energy of the environment you live in as a preparation for allowing the New Year energy into your home. I use sage incense as this saves using the traditional smudging sticks that drop embers everywhere!

It is also a great time to have a reading!

As far as readings are concerned I tend to read the tarot at Halloween like a bit of a new year reading, as usual I would start with three cards - the first representing the ending of the year, what we are leaving behind or letting go of, the centre card as the energy around us right now and the third card the guidance we are given as we move into the new year. I also have a lovely Bohemian gothic tarot deck that I like to use at this time of year for a different perspective.

Halloween is a great time to reflect on what has passed already this year and then to use the energy of what we have learned to help us to focus on what we would like to manifest for ourselves, we have a new moon the day before Halloween this year so that makes for a great time to send out your wishes to the universe or to place your cosmic order!

All in all a pretty exciting weekend spiritually, so do enjoy it.

Blessings

Crystal x