‘This is the cross Quarter Festival of Autumns End and the beginning of Winter. It is the right time to connect to root energy and for internalising the creative life force. Increasing darkness and cold means we must accept that Winter is fast approaching and we must adjust to this changing season. Leaves have fallen from the trees, birds have migrated, animals have gone into hibernation, frosts have come. It is a time of death and decay, death of the old, and within this, knowledge of rebirth. It is a time of forced adjustments which, once accepted, reveal a new set of possibilities, a new phase, a new power to life energy which we can use to explore. Like its counterpart, Beltain, Samhain brings mystical energy which we can use to explore and understand ourselves better.
This is the darkness phase of the year’s cycle when the mystery of transformation occurs. This process involves a descent and a death of something in preparation for something new to be reborn. The descent into the Underworld or the Other world can be understood as a journey into the unconscious and the Spirit realms within each of us. Here we can find renewal through meditation, trance, rest, sleep, and by sacrificing our outer selves for a while. The seeds of our ideas and future direction in life are incubated in our unconscious during the Winter months, ready for rebirth in the Spring. We can honour the cycle by being aware that each end and death of the old will bring opportunity for a new start, as each beginning hold within it an end. This endless cycle of change is necessary, bringing renewal of cells, of ourselves, our understanding and our ideas. It means there are always new opportunities to start again, to stay healthy. Many illnesses are rooted in stuck energy patterns, emotional congestion and hanging on to the past.
We have been taught to fear our inner world and to mistrust the information we may receive through insights, intuition, and our connection to our own inherent inner wisdom. Many of our actions come from our subconscious and we might not always be aware of these subtle patterns and conditioned responses that are such a part of us and which might silently rule our lives. We need to understand our unconscious selves, and to learn to listen to our inner voice. We can use the energy of the dark time of the year to explore these inner parts of ourselves. We need to face our fear of the dark mysteries, magic and our deep unwanted feelings which we may have pushed inside and not recognised as our own. We need to turn and face what these mean to us, free energies, the potential inherent in the experience. From this courageous journey will come transformation, a balanced perspective and rebirth in the age-old tradition of Samhain.
Use this time for inner exploration, astral travel, deep meditation, contacting your deepest wisdom. Slip beyond the rational and logical and go beyond the seen world. Use this time for collecting, sorting, memorising information and learning, so when the time for actions comes, you would have assimilated new knowledge which can be used when needed. Fear is one of our greatest teachers. Turn and look at what you fear and the understanding this brings. Seek the truth in the darkness; look for ways to find the divine within. Out of difficulty, comes power, hope, rebirth, inner strength, wisdom and maturity. Review and assimilate what you have learned in the active phase of the year’s cycle. Prepare yourself for the new year ahead. Nurture your visions, dreams, ideas and direction, so that they may incubate in the dark Winter months ready for when the active phase of begins again’.
From Sacred Celebrations, a sourcebook by Glennie Kindred.
