The Ancestors are Calling

Spooky season is here! October is known as the “spooky scary” month. Have you ever wondered why that was?

Many say that it’s due to Halloween being in October. While this true there is more to understand about this time of year. October as always been viewed as “spooky”, it just wasn’t spooky in the way that we view it today, with spirits coming back from the dead to torture the living and witches roaming the streets tricking and harming townsfolk. This thought process came as a result of Christian Colonization starting around the 10th century when they were attempting to wipe out the sacred rituals such as Samhain. Wiping out these rituals, proved to be harder than they thought. The Church offered a solution to allow those that wanted to continue to practice by giving them All Saints Day on November 1st. Over the years October 31st Samhain became known as All Hollow’s Eve, Hollow meaning Holy. Later this name transitioned into what we now call Halloween. It’s always been a Holy day.

The traditional practices of Samhain lasted for weeks both in festival and individually within the home. One focus of these rituals was to honor and respect those that walked before us, our ancestors. Many cultures used this time of the year to honor their ancestors as well. For example, Dios De Los Muertos in Mexico, which is still practiced and honored today. During these times of honoring, our ancestors returned with messages of wisdom to assist us in moving forward on our journeys.

These rituals date back to times to ancient times when there were no boats sailing across the oceans, and no communication with other cultures. For me that marks the wisdom and truth behind these rituals. These rituals started because at this time of year, Samhain, the veil between worlds is thinner, which makes it easier to see and communicate with our ancestors.

Samhain marks the start of Winter, which holds the energies of death, rest, and dream time, with the Cailleach (the old Goddess) holding and watching over the Winter season. On the Celtic Wheel, Samhain is the end of the year. Every year the Earth goes through a birth and death cycle, just as we do in our human life.  We start in dark womb of our mother (winter), emerge with a bright beginning of life (spring), actively grow and conquer the goals of life (summer), harvest the bounty of our life while starting to rest (autumn), and return to the dark in death (winter).

We know from witnesses, that the closer we get to the end of our lives, the more the veil starts to thin for those starting to crossover and they began to communicate with their ancestors. Because everything is connected and woven into cycles and patterns, we can correlate that to the ending of each Earth year. As we approach Samhain “the year’s death”, the veil to the otherworld thins, just as it does in human life. This allows the connection to our ancestors to be stronger and clearer. This time of the thinning between worlds deserves to be honored and respected. There is a strong request for us to return to these practices of honoring instead of mocking the opportunity presented to us.

We have become disconnected and conditioned to fear the old ways, mostly due to the Christian Colonization, but there is also a duality that exists within this time of Samhain. With the veil thinning there is opportunity for the dark wisdom or trickers to connect, communicate, and create chaos around us. This was used to perpetuate the negative implications around celebrating this sacred Samhain season. Over the years that belief has been proven time and time again because what we focus on, we attract. Though we stopped the honoring ancestors during Samhain, it did not prevent the ancestors from stirring. The ancestors continued to try and connect with their legacies, creating the spook stories that we often hear, today. We have created the story that October and Samhain are spooky and scary, because we didn’t understand what was happening, so we became fearful of it.

With the mass awakening that is currently happening, more people are breaking free of these conditionings that have disconnected us. As we reconnect to the Light Wisdom the veil between worlds continues to thin, allowing deeper connections to our ancestors, especially during the Samhain season. It is not surprising to me when I hear from clients that they are being called to ancestral work, and that they are wanting to research their ancestral lineage. They don’t know why but at this time of year it becomes sudden important to them to know where they came from.

The call that they are receiving is coming from their ancestors. People are hearing the massages that have been swirling around, asking them to reconnect to their heritage and culture. Our ancestors want to guide us into the world we’ve been asking to manifest, but it starts with reconnecting to the old ways and the earth. They want us to start pulling up the old traditions and rituals to weave them into today’s rituals so that we can carry them into the future.

One thing you could do to prepare yourself for the Samhain season, is ancestral research. Where does your family come from? If it’s multiple cultures, which culture is singing, calling, or vibrating to you? Research the old traditions and rituals or follow people that still practice these rituals today. Find something simple that resonates within you, that will allow you to honor your ancestors and help you be open to receiving guidance and wisdom from those that walked before you.  

Let’s reclaim the Samhain season. Together we can transform the stories of this time from being the bad spooky back into the welcoming of wisdom being past to us from our ancestors.