At Summer’s End : reflections on Samhain, ancestor rites, home blessings, divination, and finding stillness in the dark season.
The veil between the seen world of matter and the unseen world of spirit grows thin at Samhain. It is the season for communion with ancestors, for divination, omens, and inner journeys. A time to drift, dream, and vision. It is the time to walk the shadows and the hedge.Samhain marks summer’s end and the beginning of winter. It is the death of one year, the birth of another, the threshold of the Celtic new year. In the midst of darkness, rebirth is affirmed.
The Celts did not fear the dark as later ages came to do. Darkness was as sacred as light, carrying the seeds of regeneration. In the deep, the hidden, the quiet tomb-like spaces, new life was prepared. Samhain reminded them: womb and tomb were two doors of the same mystery.
At this season, the ancestors were honored, their presence welcomed back into hearth and home. The Sidhe and other fair folk were also said to slip through the veil; some to bless, some to play tricks, giving rise to the “mischief night” of later Halloween.
Bonfires crowned the hills, lit on burial mounds and sacred sites. Every hearth fire was extinguished, only to be rekindled from the Samhain flame. Apples, the fruit of Avalon, sacred to the mysteries of death and rebirth, were used in rites of divination. Stones marked with ash were read for omens. All was touched with a sense of threshold, of endings and beginnings interwoven.
How to Honor Samhain Today
Samhain still calls us to pause, to listen, to honor the cycles of death and rebirth in our lives. Here are a few ways to weave the season into your practice:
- Visit an ancient site: If you can, walk to a long barrow, chambered tomb, or stone circle. Many lie along ley lines and dragon paths. (A wonderful resource: Megalithic Portal)
- Try scrying: Fill a dark bowl (or silver dish) with water, light candles, and soften your gaze. Let images rise from the surface or your mind’s edge.
- Craft a Winter King/Queen: Bind sticks into a human shape and place it them your garden until Beltane. Then burn them in the fire, scattering the ashes to bless the land.
- Make offerings: Place apples or bread at a gravesite for your ancestors or for the forgotten dead. Or set a place at your table for the beloved departed (dumb supper), leaving their plate until morning.
- Create a shrine: Build a small dolmen-like altar outdoors, light a candle, and leave offerings for the ancestors of the land itself.
Samhain is a time of endings and beginnings, of forceful changes that lead to new possibilities. It is a season for going within: meditation, journeying, scrying, listening to the wild edges of the soul. Step beyond the rational. Explore the hidden paths of yourself, where new seeds are germinating in the dark.
Samhain Tarot Spread: Crossing the Veil
If you’d like to sit with the cards this Samhain, here is a spread to guide you. And of course, if you’d like me to read for you, I offer also other Tarot sessions.
Shuffle your deck slowly, perhaps by candlelight, and take a few breaths to settle. Ask to see what wisdom lies at this threshold of the year.
1. The Seed in the Dark
→ What is germinating within me, unseen, waiting for its time?
2. The Old Bone
→ What must I release, bury, or let decay so that new life can come?
3. The Ancestor’s Whisper
→ What guidance do my ancestors or guides want me to hear now?
4. The Faery’s Trick
→ What illusion, distraction, or mischief might I need to see through?
5. The Flame Rekindled
→ What strength, gift, or spark will carry me through the dark half of the year?
As the Veil Thins — A Time to Tend Home and Spirit
Samhain is not only a time for honouring the ancestors, but also for tending the spaces we live in, both within and without.
As the year turns and the dark half begins, our homes become our hearths again. It is the perfect time to cleanse stagnant energy, invite warmth back in, and prepare our space for winter’s dreaming.
If you feel your home carries heaviness, echoes of old emotions, or simply needs a refresh before winter — this is the season for it. A House Healing can help clear the residue of the past year and realign the energy of your space with peace and protection.
You can learn more about my House Healing work here:
And when the nights grow long, there’s magic in curling up with a story, especially one that whispers of other worlds.
My novels, A World Unseen and Underworld Rising, are steeped in faery lore and ancient magic, the perfect companions for a Samhain night by candlelight.
So as you light your candles and listen for the whispers between the worlds, may your home be blessed, your heart be still, and your spirit find stories that speak to its depths.
Samhain Blessings,
Blossom
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