Samhain:

The Journey Within

Samhain is a Celtic Holiday celebrating the merging together of an old year ending and a new year beginning.

The winds become raw against our skin, as the leaves have given way to the dark earth below. No longer protecting us from the warm winds of summer. Sight is wide open now. Stretching across the land like a stream of ribbons opening to the seas. The ground whispers to us. Retreat and seek safety within the walls of home and hearth. Lighting the fires of a new season and year opening before us.

This is a time, where we touch the hand of death. Where we straddle both worlds. In-between the past and future. Everything is dying in the north. Being absorbed back into the arms of Mother Earth. She is ready to rest after her journey of life and reunion with her daughter. The time of celebration is over. Growth and renewal gone. She lays her weary head down. Embracing the spiritual realms.

This is a time of drying the herbs. Of making concoctions to ease the biting winds of winter. Storing up the resources we will need to maintain sanity of mind. Things are now dead, leading us to the gates of our ancestors. Travelling roads of tradition, hibernation, seclusion. Walking hand in hand with ghosts of the past, present and future. The medicine that will bring us from one portal to health and wellness. We are so close now to the portals of life and death. To other realms which hold timeless wisdom of information. We can feel the closeness of lost relatives, wrapped in swaths of timeless beauty.

This holiday stretches us across time and space. Walking the old rough roads. Navigating our mission. Battling the fear which rises in us in the darkening of night. Remembering long forgotten promises we’ve mad to ourselves and others. Time slows here, so we can catch up on missions not yet fulfilled. The energy shifts.

We can almost fee as though something new is arising. Deep within our souls, we breath through and cross over the line between there and here. Feeling refreshed. Space opens. We can see ourselves merging onto the new landscape. Travelled through the boundaries, which are restricted at other times of the year.

We must celebrate this passage. This breach of time, where on thing leads to the next. Covering ourselves in mystical costumes. Hiding behind masks to dissolve the old underneath. To begin anew as we celebrate the New Year beginning on November 1^st. All Saints Day begins with the launching of the year ahead.

On the eve of the new dawn. Collect your belongings of old. Set out a plate for the ancestors. Give a blessing to the faeries. Recite the ballads of your spiritual guides. Seek the night sky and lift your booms in homage of something greater than yourself. Step through the threshold of time and spit upon the ground you walk. Giving power to your step forward. Give a gift to Mother Earth. To the winds of the North, the fire of the East, the earth of the South and the living waters of the West. Light the bon fires of life and thank the heavens for your life and liberty. Then bath in the waters of mother earths bounty. Filled with herbs which purify your soul.

Bake your Soul Cakes with love. Cut an apple to show the star. Placing whole cloves around the center as you sprinkle cinnamon on top for good luck. Set to dry upon the windowsill. Then burn within the Yule fires coming. Plunge a candle into the deep flesh of a whole apple. Burning it into the night with the Samhain celebrations.

Change your mark upon the world. Decide to be different. Giving blessings rather than curses to those around you. Be inclusive to remove the divisions we find amongst ourselves. Remove the shroud that blinds you from reality and seek the magick within the life you live.

Light and Love:

Spiritual Journey with Colleen Jorgensen

Recipe: Soul Cakes

Ingredients:

3 eggs

2 cups flour (can use almond or oatmeal flour)

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp salt

½ cup milk

½ sugar or maple syrup

1 stick of butter

½ cup raisins

Preheat over to 400 degrees F. Beat one egg and set aside. In a small bowl combine the flour and spices. In a saucepan, heat milk until hot to the touch. In a mixer, cream together the sugar and butter. Add the egg yolks of the remaining two eggs and blend ingredients thoroughly. Add in the flour and mix on high until the mixture crumbles. Gradually add the milk until a soft dough forms.

Turn the dough out on a flat, clean surface and knead until it is uniform. Roll into a cylinder, then cut into roughly half inch slices. Lay out on a baking sheet and brush with the reserved beaten egg.

Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.

Llewellyn’s Sabbat Essentials