October paints the world in reds, browns and golds as we prepare for colder days and lengthening nights. Nature demonstrates a profound wisdom. Allowing the old to die away makes room for spring’s renewal. Until then, we’re called to withdraw into our inner world and rest.
Just as we’re at our best after a good night’s sleep, a well-rested autumn and winter enables us to return refreshed and ready for the coming year. October honours the eternal cycles of death and rebirth, inviting us to surrender and retreat as we connect with our inner mystery and magic.
Image from Pixabay
Embracing the Gathering Darkness
Between now and December’s winter solstice comes the darkest time of year. Rather than resist it, we can celebrate this season by:
Creating warmth indoors: Light candles, draw curtains early, and fill your home with autumn’s bright oranges, golds, and yellows. Transform your space into a magical haven, inviting friends to share cosy evenings and warming food.
Venturing into nature: Wrap up warm and take long woodland walks, kicking through leaves and breathing the crisp air until your cheeks glow and your eyes shine.
Image by Mark Timberlake – Unsplash
Samhain: When the Veil Grows Thin
On 31st October, we celebrate the Celtic festival of Samhain (also known as Halloween). This powerful threshold moment sits halfway between September’s autumn equinox and December’s winter solstice when UK clocks change and darkness deepens. It marks the harvest’s end and the transition from light’s season into dark’s.
Ancient Traditions
Samhain honours the Ancestors as the veils between worlds thin. In Celtic times, all fires were extinguished except the bonfire—the ‘bone-fire’—built from remains of livestock slaughtered for winter. Each family took a torch from this communal flame to relight their home hearths.
The Cailleach, the ancient ancestral mother, was called upon to support those experiencing loss and bless the departed. Like a wise grandmother, she guided souls out of suffering and into ease.
Spirits and Mischief
Samhain was also a time when fairies could slip through cracks between worlds. Because of this, folk dressed up in costumes and masks to blend in with fellow spirits so they could avoid attention from mischievous entities. Of course humans can be equally playful and so Halloween has evolved to include a tradition of pranks and playful blame that persists even today.
Image by Beth Teutschmann – Unsplash
The Gift of Darkness
Celebrating Samhain means undertaking a sometimes difficult task by honouring the past and the forces of decline, decrease, and disappointment, and then letting them go.
Allowing ourselves to feel the darkness in our hearts can be challenging, but it’s deeply healing. As we retreat into our introspective selves, we discover courage and compassion, resilience and strength. Indeed, with a little courage, we find a beauty we never knew existed.
Questions for Reflection
- What do I no longer need?
- What am I ready to release?
- How can I embrace more rest and silence?
- What turning points in my life need understanding and grieving?
Cosy Into the Season
So fill your home with autumn’s vibrant oranges. Savor pumpkin soup. Cuddle up before your hearth fire. We’re entering a beautiful, contemplative time when the fires of our hearts can be rekindled and relit, blazing brightly as the wheel of the year continues its eternal turn.
Image by Ahep – Pixabay
And remember, the darkness is not to be feared. Instead, it’s where transformation begins.
Wishing you a blessed and beautiful October.
