Samhain blessings

Blessed Be Your Samhain

How will you mark this day?

I’ll wait until the world gets quiet—after the trick-or-treaters have gone to bed and their parents are watching horror on TV, sleeping themselves, or sneaking leftover sweeties.

Beneath the new moon and molting branches and within the chilly wind with its skittering leaves, I’ll light a fire and sit amongst the dead whilst sipping cacao and listening to the calls of the owls.

This will be my fifty eighth year celebrating Samhain—pronounced “sow-win” (Gaelic is a linguistic doozy).

For those who are unfamiliar with the day, Samhain is an ancient Celtic holiday that marks the end of the harvest season and ushers in the “dark half” of the year. It’s also said to be when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest—hence the Halloween tradition of children wearing masks to avoid being snatched by ghosts and monsters or so we are led to believe.

I have my own version of this and feel it’s the last day of mother earth opening her leylines and letting go of her heat ….. and it’s now safe for us to walk again at night without inviting negativity to follow us home.

It’s kept alive in the western world by small circles of Wiccans, pagans, witches, and those by other names who find truth and comfort by breathing life into old religious ways. Plus the marketing world who love to coin it in and make kaching noises when selling tat and sugar ! We won’t be doing that here at Modbury Farm shop.

I don’t have a theological explanation about why I’m comfortable with observing Samhain, but I know it heals me. It lets me set aside time for those I’ve lost over the years.

This year I personally said farewell to my lovely Sahira puppy dog and 2 cats , one very old 19 year old cat and a kitten.

It lets me cry for them and send them letters via the bonfire and tell my husband stories about them. It lets me celebrate them when everyone else who lost them is miles away. It lets me find peace. If that makes me a heathen or a heretic, so be it. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that I can live with the possibility of being strange more than with the lie that I can always deal with things the way I’m “supposed to.”

So, whatever you’re doing on this last day of October /trick-or-treating, partying, watching childhood classics or scary movies, or turning in early—I hope you have a safe, joyful, and peaceful Samhain.

Always Lensomy

Lucinda ✨🧡🙏🏻

Pumpkin hand crafted by our eldest daughter Katrina 🎃