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Tomorrow is Halloween! 🎃 In the ancient Celtic tradition, October 31st marks the new year. This day is called Samhain, a Gaelic word pronounced “sow-win”, translating in modern Irish to “summer’s end”. It’s the halfway point between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. This holiday (holy day) is said to be a time when the veil is thin between the worlds of the living and the dead, so it’s a day to honor those who have passed. It also marks the end of harvest season and the beginning of the darker time of year.
Personally, I get bummed about how holidays have become so commercial and seem to lose their meaning under our capitalist, consumerist culture, so it revitalizes my interest in holidays when I remember their origin stories and connections to the earth’s cycles. (But don’t get me wrong: I love eating the leftover Halloween candy, too! Both/and.) As tomorrow is the Witch’s New Year, I figured it’s a good time to share a bit about the wheel of the year here with you all, in case it helps infuse more meaning and soulfulness into how you might celebrate.
Graphics like the one above are an easy way to visualize these sabbats or holidays, their names, dates, and corresponding seasonal events. Seasons represent the sun’s cycle in relation to Earth, and the wheel tells the story of birth, growth, death, and rebirth. I’ll outline the energies I enjoy focusing on for each of these dates:
🎃 Samhain - Oct 31, halloween - honoring what has passed and letting go as a natural and necessary part of life
🌌 Yule - Dec 21, the winter solstice (+ my birthday!) - birth out of the fertile darkness/mystery (The shortest day of the year, this is when the sun is reborn, and the days get longer from this day through the summer solstice.)
🌰 Imbolc - Feb 2, groundhog’s day - initiation, preparation, weather divination
🌱 Ostara/Eostar - March 20-23, spring equinox - planting seeds, growth, fertility, balance (On the winter solstice the sun is reborn; on the spring equinox, the earth is reborn.)
🌸 Beltane - May 1, May day - fertility, creativity, pleasure, joys of being in a living body. (Opposite Samhain on the wheel, which honors the dead, this is a full celebration of the living world of plants, animals, humans.)
🌞 Litha - June 21, summer solstice - fire, generosity, and cherishing what we love in knowing that nothing lasts forever (The longest day of the year, and the daylight begins to gets shorter from here through winter solstice.)
🌾 Lammas/Lughnasad - Aug 1, harvest begins - hopes and fears, offerings, making amends
🍁 Mabon - Sept 20-23, autumn equinox - harvesting what we’ve grown, finding balance
On this turn of the wheel to a new year and in appreciation of this season, here’s
reading: I scored a signed copy of
‘s book, Circle Round when I participated in one of her Spiral Dance events in 2003ish. It offers beautiful stories, crafts, recipes, and rituals (for yourself and your family) aligning with each of the seasonal holidays.remembering: In my book, I tell the story of a local legend where I grew up in Virginia Beach — Grace Sherwood, the Witch of Pungo. You can get your copy here (also available in audiobook via Amazon, if you like to be read to, like I do!) and/or tune into this podcast where I told Grace Sherwood’s story earlier this year — the story begins at 24 minutes in.
listening to: I love this cover of the classic Nina Simone tune…
snacking on: Roasted pumpkin seeds! I make mine extra crispy with maldon sea salt flakes.
following: I like my woo-woo to be grounded, and I’ve been following
for years because she does just that. I participated in her Witch Camp, gosh, maybe 7 or 8 years ago, and she’s now offering a mini version through her Substack.learning: I’m deepening my tarot knowledge in a super-fun new online course.
Blessed Samhain, my friends! Let me know how you end up marking this new year!
If you’d like to receive the next monthly post of curated seasonal goodness and my bespoke monthly playlist, be sure to upgrade to the super-reasonable paid prism subscription by this Wednesday, 11/1, as these treats come out on the 1st of each month. Eeeee! I cannot wait to share supremely comforting November vibes with paid subscribers in just a couple days!!!
As another gift of inspiration to my paid subscribers, I’ll leave you with more colorful images below of my Samhain celebrations over the years…