Samhain Correspondences

Here is the "notes" version of my Samhain Youtube video!! Haven't seen this video? Check it out!

Samhain 

October 30-Nov 1 (April SH)

Themes: Death, rebirth, divination, honoring ancestors, introspection, beginning, mischief 

“Witch’s New Year” 

Samhain = Summers end (old Irish) 

Final Harvest festival 

Veil is at it’s thinnest 

God & Goddess stories 

• The god has aged and descends into the earth 

  • To be reborn again at Yule 

• Goddess is in the crone stage 

A misconception, it was to celebrate the god of the dead (not true) 

Old Ways 

• Used to be celebrated on the first frost after the full harvest moon 

• Light a community fire using a wheel that represented the Sun 

• Black sheep black sow or cattle would be a sacrifice 

• Bones from the feast thrown into the fire as good fortune for next seasons harvest (this is where bonfire comes from) 

• Celtic people dressed in white or wore scary masks to blend in with the ghosts and demons 

• Turnips were carved to protect the home and used as lanterns 

• They held dumb suppers

• Left out food 

• Pranks were played and blamed the Fae 

• Leave doors unlocked 

How to celebrate 

• Honoring the dead 

  • Have a dumb supper 

• Put candles on the windows to guide home ancestors 

• Leave out apples for lost spirits or spirits with no family 

• Divination (marriage and death) 

• Let go of anything no longer serving you 

• Decorate your Altar 

  • With colors and symbols of the season, and ancestors 

• Honor the forgotten dead 

  • Place flowers on unloved gravestones 

• Honor your ancestry 

  • Trace your genealogy 

  • Have an ancestor altar 

• Bake! 

  • Pies, Soups, Soul cakes, Pumpkin 

Magick for the night 

Banishing, releasing, strengthening psychic abilities, protection, renewal  

Correspondences 

• Colors 

  • Black, brown, grey, orange, yellow, silver 

• Herbs 

  • Garlic, mugwort, myrrh, rosemary, sage, wormwood, yarrow, frankincense, valerian, catnip, oak leaves, witch hazel, angelica, deadly nightshade, and mandrake 

• Trees and Flowers 

  • Cedar, Hazel, Hemlock, Chrysanthemum, Marigold, Calendula, sunflower, goldenrod 

• Crystals and stones 

  • Carnelian, Jet, Moonstone, Obsidian, bloodstone, onyx, smoky quartz  

• Metals 

  • Iron and silver 

• Animals 

  • Black cats, owls, ravens, spiders 

• Scents 

  • Cinnamon, clove, copal, myrrh, pine, honey, frankincense, nutmeg, sweetgrass, sandalwood, patchouli 

• Foods 

  • Apple, pickled foods, pumpkin, nuts, pomegranates, root vegetables, squashes, bread 

• Drink

  • Apple cider, mulled wine, pumpkin juice, ale, herbal teas  

Hope this helped!!

~Marigold