The Darkest Day of the Year - Rising the Dark Influence during Samhain Rituals

As the wheel of the year is turning once more, we are approaching the Samhain season and today we are going to learn more not only about Samhain origins but also different world celebrations of Samhain and finally rituals related to it as well as it's symbolism. So let's start with its origins:

Origins of Samhain

This celebration used to be similar to our New Year - celebrated greatly, because the old is gone and the new is yet to come. Everything which is important is here and now. The veil between our world and the world of spirits it's thinner than usual so the ghosts and spirits might come into our world. As we mentioned in the class about the wheel of the year - early pagan cultures were deeply involved with agriculture. Samhain happens on time when the day is short, the darkness approaches fast and days are cold. Warm of the sun is almost gone, and there aren't many things we can do on the field. So right now we focus on collecting the last fruits and vegetables and focusing on animals. It's the time of the hunt, so we can have food and meat. As my get dead animal we can use almost everything - skin for marking clothes, meat for drying to survive the cold wintertime. During this time we are more focused on home working - we work together and focus on the family itself. Once the sun goes down and we still have time, we focus more on the family - remembering ancestors, teaching things to the young ones and sharing the traditions. This is why the Samhain connects all of that in its tradition. Samhain itself is a Celtic tradition marking the end of the harvest and the start of the colder and darker time. You can say it's original Halloween, as one is based on another and just changed a little bit. We will explain it more below, in the section about different traditions.

Spiritual work during Samhain

I mentioned that in the post about the wheel of the year, but I will go into more details here. As you know from the story about the Goddess she is resting in the underworld, and that's why the underworld is our main element during this time. With the underworld topic we bring ghosts, demons and scary things - as the dark and scary side, but also our ancestors and friends who left this world - as the positive energy of it. We should be also familiar with time being cyclic in the wheel .. death doesn't mean anything negative - it's just a new form of being reborn. Anything related to life, have to be related to the death itself too, and not every death have to be a literal one. There are many forms of death - including transformation,

removing something negative for good things to grow, ego death and mental death. All of that will find its element here. We can also add into these symbols the shadow working, working with darkness or on an element of Darkness. The planetary influence here would be mainly Saturn with its Black Sun, but also Uranus. Samhain itself celebrates also family - bond, connection not only to people but also to the land itself. We can move deeper focus on the astral bonds and connections, but also on karmic bonds. As we have a very strong influence on Saturn, we will also focus on karma and the wheel of fortune. Now it's the perfect time to sit down and focus on the past year. What positive happened? Why? What negative happened? How we can change it? What lesson did we learn from it? Samhain holds all of that, and yet more. It's not only about Death and ancestors but holds also keys to self-evolution, especially if you want to work with the death-related goddess. This is the time for Persephone, Ereshkigal, Morrigan or Santa Muerte. This is the time when the Life-giving goddess shows us her other nature as nothing can be stagnant. Stagnant energy destroys everything, so the goddess changes and shows the darker side of her. She's not only light but also dark. The yin yang, the perfect balance. We can also find a Crone aspect of the Triple Goddess here, but we will talk

more about them in future posts.

How to celebrate Samhain?

As we learned all basics we should know about the Samhain now, we will give you an example of how to celebrate it. In different parts of the world, you can find different traditions related to Samhain. We will describe them in another paragraph, but remember one thing - you don't have to be from specific culture to follow their pantheon or tradition. If you feel the pull towards specific things just do it. I know that some societies claim to be "closed and ancestral only" but I noticed the spirits doesn't bother with something like that. If they seem somebody worthy of working with them they will keep attracting you towards them. I will write another post about that topic too. For now, focus on what you feel is best for you. As it's a time of a Goddess, you can choose any dark one to work with her. You can also choose a God. Or simply both of them to celebrate your Samhain with them. Below you will find the list of the most popular ones in my opinion, but feel free to read and find more about them. Remember! Before summoning or praying to a God/Goddess always read about them as much as you can, so you can find the most suitable one. If you feel pulled towards a specific deity - just focus on them. Mostly that means that they are calling to you. Create your ritual space - you can make specific decor related to Samhain or keep it simple. You might need a sigil (if you found one) enn (if the spirit has one) or a painting of the God/Goddess. Something to represent them. For example, if I would call Lilith I would use both - sigil and enn. If I would call Ereshkigal I would use her name written in Sumerian as a sigil and chant name. If you found any dedicated prayer - use it too. You can use black candles and incense related to Samhain or God/Goddess. Or simply use one of your likings. After the prayer, you can try to focus on talking with them - either in meditation or by using a pendulum or your cards. If you are more advanced you can try automatic writing or channelling. Your main focus here should be on bringing changes for the new year and removing everything negative around you. An example ritual can be found below, it's one I channelled some time ago, yet I find it very powerful. It invokes 4 dark Goddesses in order to help you.

Original Celtic Samhain Traditions

As we know already the veil between the world's is very thin during the Samhain. That allows not only our ancestors to move between the worlds, but also any kind of spirits to do so...and they will. Especially the negative ones or monsters as they were called back then. Wild hunt will be visible over the world, and every time will mix with human folk. Because of that, would be smart to protect ourselves from the negative spirits and guide only positive ones to us. So how did the Celts do that? They wouldn't move away from home during that time and lit little lights to lead their ancestors to them. But to prevent the negative ones from coming, they would carve the turnips (and not pumpkins, pumpkins weren't even known back then) into some sort of scary face and place fire inside. The ancestors will come, because they will see the light and recognize their home, and other spirits will be noticing the scary face and leave. These were the first traditions of jack-o'-lanterns. They will also leave them outside the villages. If they had to, they would make some sort of costume to pass for a monster too, instead of for a human. That would prevent from them being recognized, and assure they could travel safely.

What sort of danger you could meet then?

The most dangerous thing here was

The Wild Hunt

As the story claims faerie Unseelie court hosts a wild hunt every night and it's never-ending, but only during Samhain time they are reaching the earth. During that night every human spotted by faeries will be invited to join and they can't refuse them. The human will follow the hunt, without the rest hunting for the animals, and after a few nights they body will die from exhaustion, pain and lack of food and drink... But even death wouldn't let the spirit free and even as a ghost they will have to follow the hunt until the end of their days. You need to remember that Faerie days and nights last for a very long time compared to human time.

Unseelie Faeries

Faeries usually are described as an elemental being of the earth element, and they are separated into two courts. Seelie Court - human-friendly, open and helpful Unseelie - unfriendly tricksters who are dark faeries. Doesn't like to be offended and everything can offend them, taking revenge as they please. Very prideful and protective. It was natural, that they would be more visible and active during the darker side of the year and naturally humans feared them.

Dullahan

Is a headless rider on a black horse, who carries his own head held high in his hand who shows up during Samhain. Celts believed that when the Dullahan stops riding, a person is about to die. The Dullahan calls out the person's name, drawing away from the soul of his victim, at which point the person immediately dies. He can also blind people either by using a skeletons whip made of the human spine or throwing the blood into persons face. There were also multiple traditions similar to trick or treat - either they were done by hungry spirits or little beings or our angry ancestors. This is why Celts left little foods and drinks outside the home and invited their ancestors for dinner feast, and this part is seen in many worldwide traditions too.

World Traditions

And now reached the last step in this post to show you many worldwide traditions about Samhain.

Catholic Countries

In some places thanks to catholic church influence it had been renamed as All Saints' Day and moved to 1st November. The original date was the day before, and Samhain is also the original form of Halloween. Usually, they lit little lampoons on the graves of the family and then spent time with alive family members remembering the dead. Usually, they also place flowers - either chrysanthemum or any autumn flowers or flowers wreaths.

Mexico

The most original form of celebrating is in Mexico as it Mixes both - catholic and pagan influence. There is a huge festival celebrating Día de Los Muertos (English The day of the dead)people dress and paint their faces to resemble skeleton ones. This day unlike any other place is a very happy time, full of joy and happiness. Mexicans always visit graves of their family but they hold feasts there leaving food and rum for the dead and spreading it on the graves. Very often the feasts are celebrated with music and dancing They also give friends and family little sugar skulls.

Portugal

Dia de Todos os Santos is celebrated like a mix of Mexican tradition and Halloween. Families remember their dead and visit cemeteries, Portuguese children celebrate the Pão-por-Deus tradition (also called santorinho, bolinho or fiéis de Deus) going door-to-door, where they receive cakes, nuts, pomegranates, sweets and candies.

Guatemala

That day Guatemalans make a special meal called fiambre which is made of cold meats and vegetables; it is customary to visit cemeteries and to leave some of the fiambre for their dead. It is also customary to fly kites to help unite the dead with the living.

Korea

Chuseok, often compared to American Thanksgiving, is Korea's largest national holiday and is celebrated throughout both North and South Korea. Marked with dancing, games and food, Chuseok is also a time for Koreans to honour their ancestors. The holiday is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth lunar calendar month (which translates to sometime in September or October). Traditionally, the celebration coincides with the fall harvest—and during the three-day festival, the living give thanks to the dead for their part in providing bountiful crops.

China

For Buddhists and Taoists, an entire month is spent each year honouring their ancestors. The month—known as Hungry Ghost Month—culminates in the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates to the netherworld are said to be most open to the world of the living. Hungry Ghost Festival balances fear with frivolity. Celebrations begin with a parade, which culminates with lanterns being placed on floats and released onto bodies of water. Families believe that the further the lantern travels before catching fire, the luckier the family will be in the coming year. During the Hungry Ghost Festival, families place food on altars to appease hungry spirits. They also place paper offerings—fake money, cut-out cars, paper watches—into metal bins; the paper in the bins is then set on fire, and the offerings are meant to provide for the ancestors in their afterlife.

Cambodia

Sometime between mid-September and mid-October each year, Cambodian life slows down in observance of Pchum Ben. The holiday lasts for fifteen days, during which time Cambodians gather at pagodas (wearing white, the Cambodian colour of mourning) to remember ancestors. During the 15 days of Pchum Ben, the line between the living and dead is thought to be at its thinnest—Cambodians believe that during Pchum Ben, spirits come back in search of living relatives, hoping to atone for sins from their past life. Like in China, the spirits who wander through the world of the living are thought of as "hungry ghosts," and as such, are offered food and drink to help placate their otherworldly suffering. Cambodians carry food to pagodas, which Buddhist monks then offer to the souls of the deceased.

Of course that aren't all traditions you can find worldwide, but some interesting ones I could find.

The worldwide traditions were taken from smithsonianmag.com,portuguese-american-journal.com,tripsavvy.com the rest is based on my own knowledge