Rosalba Fontanez

Samhain is celebrated on the autumnal equinox and has grown into the modern day holiday of Halloween. Samhain is associated with the harvest because the ancients were an agrarian society that lived and died by their crops. They believed that summer came to an end on October 31st and the New Year began on November 1st with the start of winter consequently, marking the beginning of a whole new cycle.

Samhain is also associated with the dead. It is believed that the barrier between worlds, or the curtain between the living and dead is especially vulnerable this night. The dead were said to roam about the countryside.

Samhain is also a time for insight, since the departed can observe across time and at this rotating of the year we may share in their powers. Some people in the world root their traditions in ancient practices to honor their loved ones by setting up altars to honor their ancestors.

In honoring our ancestors, we are also honoring and celebrating aspects of us. The more we are able to treat ourselves with gentleness, the more tenderness and compassion we will call forth into our lives.

Honor our own past at that same time that we renew our vision, embrace the future and honor the sacred cycle of life, death, rebirth and regeneration.

Samhain is also a time for insight, since the departed can observe across time and at this rotating of the year we may share in their influence. Death that births the new, great insights can be born on this transformational night -if you listen. At New Year who doesn't think about what the year ahead may hold?

Take a moment and ask these questions in ritual:

• What habit, pattern, or belief no longer serves you?
• What deep truth wants to be reborn in you?
• Close your eyes and listen to the answer.

When you have the awareness, let yourself know if you are ready to let go of this habit, pattern or belief to make way for a new form or possibility to emerge. You may journal for a while, paying close attention to what answers come up in your writing. Take time to honor this process through ritual - make an altar to this aspect of yourself, write a letter to this attribute (s) or draw a picture of it and then burn it. Embrace the strengths and the weaknesses, and thank them for all the work they have done on your behalf. They served a purpose once, but now you are ready for your highest possibility.

Release the energy of all that is outdated and allow the gates to open for all that is new to flow into your awareness.

And by the way, did you…

• Make an altar to honor your ancestors?
• Start a Gratitude Practice?
• Write your New Year’s wishes and goals?

Samhain or December 31st, a time to revere and honor our ancestors, our past, is also a great opportunity for the death and rebirth process, a subtle act that often requires the faith to journey through your own personal shadow.