Halloween has its origin in Samhain, a Wiccan holiday originating from a 2,000-year-old Celtic tradition marking the pagan new year. Celebrated from October 31 to November 1, the sabbat—or festival—occurs midway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. Translating as the “end of the summer,” Samhain is a time where the Sun, the trees, and their harvest take their steps toward their winter repose. As our focus turns inwards, people begin to consider their shadow selves and their inevitable descent toward the underworlds.
As well as being a time of renewal and reflection, Samhain is also famously a time where the veil between the material and spirit world is at its thinnest. To honor this, witches traditionally prepare food for the living and the dead, while also focusing on mediumship and ancestral magick. Traditionally, to celebrate the sabbat, village elders would practice love magick with apples, divinate with burning hazel nuts, and cast bones of slaughtered livestock into a communal fire for protection.
Of all the witches’ sabbats, Samhain is one of my favorites. It is the best time to harness the powerful energies of the underworld, converse with the dead, reconnect with ancestral wisdom, and work on the shadow self—all essential practices of the working witch. If you’re a witch yourself or just searching for new ways to mark Halloween, here are three Samhain rituals you can try.
An altar cleanse for Halloween
In the spirit of Samhain, you can do an altar cleanse. If you keep an altar, you can replace anything left over from the autumn equinox with ancestral and Samhain-related magickal tools and offerings. And if you don’t keep an altar, now is a good time to start! Simply choose a spot in your home to use. Include offerings for each element:
Earth: Crystals, stones, flowers (dead or alive), photographs/belongings/letters from your ancestors, ethically sourced bones or other symbols of death, ashes, and seasonal food offerings such as dried apples, corn kernels, bread, and fruit.
Air: Incenses such as frankincense, yerba santa, tobacco, or dried mugwort
Water: I like to set out Florida water for the ancestors and red wine for the gods. Additionally, be sure to keep any divinatory tools such as tarot cards, scrying mirrors, runes, and crystal balls on the water side of your Samhain altar.
Fire: Set out some candles and lanterns. You can carve your altar candle with the othala rune, a rune representing ancestral legacy.
Consider a Samhain altar space as a resting site for the dead. Tend to it often, and not only when you need something! Sometimes the greatest ancestral offering is your time and attention.
A scrying ritual for Halloween
On the night of Samhain or Halloween, you can leave food and wine offerings by the front door or on your altar, if you have one. Be generous with your offerings, just as your ancestors are generous with their wisdom.
The veil is thinnest during this time of year, so you can also try to communicate with your ancestors by scrying—a way of gaining insight by gazing into an object called scrying mirror. Though the traditional scrying mirror is a slab of obsidian, the modern witch might use a cup of black coffee or water in a cooking pot. First, cast a protective circle by visualizing being encircled in a glowing white light. Or if you’ve got the tools, use an athame—a witches’ double-edged dagger used in ritual—to draw a circle of energetic light around your body. next, focus your attention on the dark liquid until you see a mist appear and your vision begins to blur. Once your focus is neutralized, ask your ancestors if they would like to appear and converse. Notice if any images or words materialize either in your mind’s eye or directly in the liquid.
During the month of October, I communicate with my ancestors each day so that on the day of Halloween I am able to have an incredibly powerful scrying session and receive important messages that I carry with me throughout the year. It is important to do the work throughout the month, as well as on the day of Samhain itself. In this sense, ancestral relationships must be treated like relationships in the real world—they must be reciprocal and tended to with love and care.
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A tarot reading for Halloween
Samhain is considered the witch’s new year, so it is not uncommon for witches to draw a Samhain tarot spread prophesying the year ahead. The thinner veil also provides a powerful energy for any kind of divinatory work, and answers can appear clearer than usual. Some questions you might want to ask the cards include, “What does the energetic year ahead bring for me?” and “What must I release, in order to move forward?” On the eve of Samhain, I do a three-card tarot spread, drawing one card for the past (on the far left), present (in the center), and future(on the far right), which has been very effective.
Remember above all, to not be afraid of the darkness and the dead that linger between this world and the next. There is great wisdom to be found amongst their shadows if we search for it with willingness and openness. May communication from the other side be clear and illuminating. May you find peace in all that has passed and seek joy in all that is to come. Blessed be.
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Isabella Greenwood is a London-based priestess, sorceress, spellcaster, healer, and folklorist. She works with energetic, archetypal, primordial, and esoteric practices, as well as unique divinatory and healing techniques. A devotee of the tarot, Isabella has been reading for both the living and the dead for over eight years. With a background in traditional, ceremonial, witchcraft and magick, she also runs lunar and Wiccan sabbat circles. Informed by lunar, elemental, and astrological epistimologies, her practice is deeply rooted in the divine. Extending beyond the practice of ceremony, divination and study of stars alone, she also writes on mythology, folklore, the ethics of witchcraft, feminism, and the occult. Visit her website at themagickroom.com.
