Halloween (Samhain) starts on the first harvest moon you see inOctober and needs during the first week of November. —Carole S.

Samhain (pronounced “sow-in” is the first festival in the wheel of the year. Also known as Halloween, All Hallow’s Eve, and the Witches’ New Year. Samhain is the middle point between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice.

Its a multi-day and often a multi week, observation that has a variety of names and is observed in unique ways throughout various cultures.

The Thinning of the Veil is one of the themes A common phrase we hear about Halloween And the Season of Samhain.

Samhain is not the only day in which the veil is thin, but it is the period of thinning during the year of the witch. Significant for many who want to seriously manifest and change their lives in the new year! Its a GREAT time to start the Witchers way to Manifestation!! If you were to muse about the traditional New Year’s Day.

How many people make wishes, resolutions and set plans into motion? Nearly all of us! The witch’s new year is a time when we ca do the same exact thing, yet receive the blessings and the benefits of a thinned veil. Messages to the Spirit World Lighting the Way for the Ancestors Feeding the Ancestors, also called the “dumb supper” Similar acts of feeding the ancestors that have transitioned, that might cross from the veil or in purgatory - for a visit.

During this time its a great idea to set food out for your family and for the ancestors

The departed.Beginning a ceremony to invite in the ancestors

And at the end bid them farewell.

• Trick or Treating
• Pranks
• Costumes 
• Parties & Games
• Pumpkin Carving
• Bonfires
• Apples on a String
• Apple Peel Divinations
• Snap Apple
• Bobbing for Apples
• Haunted Houses
• Adopting an Ancestor

• Have a Divination Party

   

• The Candle Chain

   

• Tell Stories 

   

• Binge Watch Halloween Movies

   

• Hold a Samhain Vigil

Samhain Oil

1 TBSP Sunflower or Olive Oil

1 TBSP Calendula Flowers

1 TBSP Marigold Flowers

1 piece frankincense resin

Combine all ingredients and leave in a sunny window

Preferably the West, until ready for use.

Samhain Loose Incense

Burn this herb mix over charcoal briquettes

1 tsp, Myrrh 

1 tsp. Frankincense resin

1 tsp. Copal resin

Mix well. Burn a pinch at at time.

Samhain Bath Salts

1/2 c Epson Salt

1/2 c sea salt

1 tsp vegetable glycerin 

10 drops basil essential oil

10 drops camphor essential oil

10 drops vetiver essential oil

Pour the salt and glycerin into a shatter proof container (for safety in the bathroom)

Add the essential oils, Mix with a wooden stick or spoon, Shake just before adding to water.

Magical Focus:

Confrontation, healing, hope, interdependence, love preparation, protection, release from old bonds, renewal.

Suggested Workings: Fire, Divinations, crossroads

Archetypes:

Female: The Crone, the Grieving Mother, the Grieving Wife, the Woman in White, 

Male: The Huntsman, The Husbands man, the Faery King

Androgynous:

The Witch, the Changeling, the Grim Reaper, the Wild Hunt

Colors

Black: Darker half of the year, years impending winter, mourning, night, protection form evil, sleep

Brown: Ancestors, decay, earth, faery folk, healing, hibernation, nature, roots

Grey: Neutrality, rest, silence, storms, uncrossing, the Veil

Orange: Allies, change, delights, the hearth, inner warmth, sustenance, transformation, transition 

Yellow: Change, harmony, health, hope, light, optimism, transition 

Silver: The Goddess, the inner self, mirrors, the moon, shadow work 

Herbs:

Broom: cleansing, humility, invoking good fortune

Dittany of Crete: communication, divination 

Garlic: cleansing, protection, purification

Mugwort: divination, healing, insight, meditation 

Myrrh: cleansing, divination, embalming, funerals, rebirth 

Rosemary: Healing, memory, mental stimulation

Sage: Healing, purification, spirituality 

Wormwood: creativity, depth, divination, insight, purification, visions 

Yarrow: Courage, endurance, exorcism, healing emotional wounds, the Horned God, wish-making

Trees

Cedar: preservation, protection, purification 

Hazel: fertility, happy marriage, luck, wisdom

Hemlock (highly poisonous): Astral Projection, the Crone, the Veil, Wisdom

Flowers:

Chrysanthemum: cheer, friendship, rest

Calendula: cleansing, purification, restoration, safety

Marigold: The Crone, grief healing, honoring aging, protection 

Crystals & Stones:

Carnelian: healing, peace, protection, sexuality 

Jet: absorption, divination, protection form nightmares, reflection, shadows

Moonstone: balance, divination, feminine influence, the Goddess, healing, hidden knowledge, insight

Obsidian: depth, divination, grounding

Onyx: protection, self-defense, self-discipline

Metals:

Iron: protection (especially from the fae ;()

Silver: Fairies, the Goddess, mirror worlds

Animals, Totems & Mythical Creatures 

Black cats: associated with witches, superstitions told of magic workers shapeshifting into cats or taking them as spirit familiars

Owls: the dedicated bird to the goddess Athena; nocturnal, especially visible in the late fall season as the trees no longer insure them on their perches

Ravens: The dedicated bird of Morrighan who sometimes appears as a raven; believed to represent the souls of the dead & to carry messages from beyond the Veil to the living 

Spiders: Associated with the Egyptian Goddess Neith as a weaver of fate; webs often used in folk spells for binding and troublesome people or for banishing harm from a home

Scents, Essential Oils: 

Cinnamon, clove, copal, decaying leaves, myrrh, pine needles, warm honey