It’s officially October and that means one thing, Samhain/Halloween is on its way! But what is Samhain and how can you use it for something more productive than lighting your pumpkin and eating your weight in chocolate?
Before Samhain became the commercialised holiday of Halloween (I won’t lie, I love both equally) it was a pagan sabat that was used to celebrate the end of a wheel cycle. Samhain is the very last celebration in the wheel of the year, with a brand new cycle starting on Yule. With this in mind, Samhain was seen as a pagan new year, a time where we look back and reflect on what has been and start planning for what will be.
So how can we use Samhain to help us move forward with purpose, balance and courage?
Celebrating the end of a cycle
If I had to relate Samhain to any of the tarot cards, it would be the Death card. Which also ties into the spooky, death laden aesthetic we’ve come to know and love around Halloween, ironic? I think not!
Just like the Death card tells us to do, we have to now accept and welcome the end of this yearly cycle. We have to choose what we want to move into and decide how we want to bid farewell to this chapter in our life. Even if there are things we want to continue into this next wheel cycle, there will be things that are better left in the past and this time of year is when we get to dig those things out and be rid of them for good.
Starting fresh
To get the most from Samhain, we have to figure out what things we have carried with us this year that have held us back, kept us down or stopped us completely. What thought processes have been plaguing you? What self-limiting beliefs have made this year less productive?
The best way to get to the heart of what you need to leave behind is to spend some time with your journal. And to help you dig deep and really think about what you’ve got weighing you down, here are a few journal prompts you can use to ask the important questions.
A Samhain ritual for starting a new chapter
If you didn’t already know, Samhain 2020 is a very special one as it takes place on a blue moon, meaning it falls on the second full moon in one single month. It’s filled with a powerful energy that shines a bright light on the darkest parts of ourselves, so it’s the perfect time to uncover all that negativity that has made a home within your mind.
This Samhain/ Halloween you can do a ritual for yourself, to help you figure out what you need to leave behind in this year cycle and how you can make more positive and productive steps forward into a new chapter.
*Remember, we aren’t repressing these negativities, we are uncovering them so we can work through them and resolve them in a healthy way!
Samhain Ritual For a New Chapter
Let’s start a new chapter with purpose and courage…
What you’ll need:
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1x White candle or 1x Samhain ritual candle
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1x Snowflake Obsidian – for hope, banishing negativity and attracting positivity
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1x Sodalite crystal – for intuition, inner wisdom and spiritual awareness
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Sandalwood incense or sandalwood fragrance oil
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Heatproof dish or bowl *water if you can’t burn materials
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Paper & pen
The ritual
*In this ritual, we will be burning paper, but if you can’t burn things for whatever reason, don’t worry you can still do the ritual, but instead of burning, submerge it in water and then dispose of it.
Step 1: First things first, we need to get into the right mindset so do 10-minutes of meditation, focusing on the breath and allowing all sounds and distractions to melt away. Light your candles and incense/ burn your oil, get comfy and allow your body to let go of all the stress of the day.
Step 2: Next, we’re going to grab those journal prompts and work through them. If you’ve done them in advance, awesome! We’re going to use our answers to figure out what we want to let go of during this ritual.
Step 3: Look at the answers to the questions around what has stopped you from achieving your goals, what bad habits you want to let go of and what you wish you’d done less of. Take those answers and re-word them into statements.
For example, one of mine would be: “I let go of my habit of criticising my work ethic when my energy is low“ or “I let go of my belief that I am not capable of achieving my biggest goals in life“ etc.
I want you to write these on a slip of paper and fold it up.
Step 4: Next we want to counter this negativity with some positive affirmations. Just like we did with our negative statements, we want to do the same for our positive statements, using the answers from the journal prompts around what you wish you’d done more of and what good habits you want to adopt in this new cycle.
For example: “I meditate for 10-minutes every morning“ or “I have a good balance between working hard and taking care of my wellbeing“
Word these affirmations as though you already do them.
Step 5: Now we’ve got our negativities all wrapped up in our paper prisons and our positive affirmations waiting to be affirmed, we then want to light the negativities paper on fire using either a lighter or the flame from your candle and drop it in the bowl or dish. Please be careful when doing this! I don’t want any burned fingers or for you to burn your house down. If you can’t burn the paper, cover it in water and let it sit while you do step 6.
*Quick tip: Printer paper can be a menace to burn, so if you can get your hands on some natural paper or paper made from plant materials, it’ll burn much faster and easier.
Step 6: Whilst you watch your negativities be destroyed and disappear in a puff of smoke, hold your crystals in your left hand and read your affirmations out loud. Repeat all the affirmations three times in total. *the left hand is the hand of receiving and we want to receive the hope and intuition our crystals offer us.
Step 7: Once you’re all done with your affirmations, blow out your candles and take the remnants of your negativity paper and dispose of it. If you want to really go the extra mile, bury the ashes in the garden. You can then put your crystals and your positive affirmations in a small bag and carry it around as a good luck talisman, or sleep with it under your pillow to affirm your desires even further.
Don’t forget, you can grab all my exclusive Samhain products over on my shop!
