Samhain: Ancestors, Endings & a Little Energetic Housekeeping
While I fully support having a holiday dedicated to candy, there’s more to this time of year than pumpkin shaped reese's (why are the shapes so much better?!) and questionable costume choices.
Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the beginning of winter. It falls on November 1, with celebrations traditionally beginning the evening before, on October 31. It’s one of the festivals that helped shape Halloween, though our distant ancestors probably weren’t knocking on doors hoping for a king size candy bar.
In Irish folklore, this is a time when the boundary between our world and the spirit world is thinner. You’ve probably heard this described as “the veil is thin.” In my own work, I use this season to connect with ancestors, clear out some energetic clutter, and acknowledge the endings we may have rushed through because life was happening.
If you’d like to do the same, here are three ways to work with the season. Candy can absolutely be involved.
1. Decide what you’re carrying forward
This is a great time for an ancestral check-in. Take an honest inventory of the qualities and family “traditions” you’re carrying forward, and which ones you’d like to leave behind.
Think of one ancestor you knew or have heard about. If you know how to journey, you can explore that connection through journey work. Otherwise, simply reflecting on what you know about them works, too. No need to overcomplicate it. (And if you want to learn how to journey, I teach that in The Well.)
What qualities do you want to carry forward? Maybe it’s humor, creativity, generosity, or the ability to make people feel welcome.
And what would you like to stop repeating? Avoiding difficult conversations? Feeling guilty whenever you rest? Acting like having needs is an embarrassing personal failure?
Make two lists: what I’m carrying forward and what I’m choosing to change. Then choose one behavior you can practice differently.
You can appreciate your family line without renewing the subscription to every family pattern.
2. Give your energy some attention
With the veil being thin, you may notice what feels like a little extra energetic buzz if you’re sensitive to energy.
Give yourself plenty of time to wind down, especially when you first return home from an outing. Dedicated some time (10 min is plenty) to clear any energy you may have picked up while out in the world. You have enough of your own stuff going on.
One year, around this time, I was walking to down the street and was suddenly hit with a wave of anxiety. II couldn't figure out what it was related to and it was so strong I thought about calling out of work. Luckily, I had just started doing energetic work and knew to ask the question "Does this belong to me?" My intuition said "nope," and I was able to take a deep breath, say "no, no, not mine, get off me" and move on...all this to say, accidentally picking up someone else's energy is super easy to do, so make sure you are clearing off what doesn't belong to you.
My free General Energetic Cleanse is a guided practice you can use for this. Bonus: it includes ancestral clearing, so we’re covering a couple of bases here.
3. Let yourself grieve what has changed
An ending doesn’t become fully processed just because it happened a long time ago. Unfortunately, “but that was years ago” is not a magic spell.
You might still have feelings about a relationship, a career, a home, a particularly difficult chapter of life, or a version of you that ended years ago. Sometimes having more distance gives you room to feel what you couldn’t at the time.
Think back to an ending that may not have been fully processed. Did you have room to grieve that shift, or were you busy figuring out what the hell to do next?
Write about that transition. What changed? What do you miss? What were you feeling regularly that you never really had space to acknowledge?
Let yourself respond. If you need to ugly-snot cry, do it. You don’t need to make the feelings tidy or immediately turn them into life lessons.
If you’re thinking, “Why would I intentionally make myself upset about something that happened so long ago?” fair question. The point is to give something that still affects you a little time and attention. You may find there’s sadness, anger, relief, or a whole confusing mix waiting there. Go at your own pace; you don’t have to dig through your entire emotional history in one sitting.
And remember: happy change involves an ending, too. You can be super excited about your present and still feel sad that the previous chapter is over. Gratitude does not cancel grief. They’re allowed in the same room.
If you’re having trouble working through an ending and would like support, I recommend an energy healing session. We can give that transition some dedicated attention together.
Spirit Guides to Work With
The Morrígan
In my own work, and in the Samhain healing we’ll be doing in The Well, we’ll be working with the Morrígan.
The Morrígan is an Irish goddess associated with battle, prophecy, and death.
For our healing, we’ll be working with her around grieving and releasing what we didn’t have room to process in the past. The ending you powered through. The chapter you closed practically, while emotionally you still had a few things left to say.
We’ll give those feelings some attention and explore what you’re ready to let go of. There’s no requirement to arrive at the session knowing exactly what that is...most of the time the Morrigan will show you where the battle was.
Suggestions, Not Requirements
As always, these are suggestions. Samhain is not another assignment, and you are not behind on your seasonal spiritual development if you are unable to do every one of these practices.
These markers of the year offer a chance to pause, create a personal ritual, and check in with yourself. If that ritual is adding stress or chaos to your life, give yourself a break. You do not need to schedule an ancestral breakthrough between work and making dinner.
If you’d like more grounded ways to explore this work, join my email list for future blog posts, healing resources, and updates on what we’re doing together. I’d love to have you there.
Talk soon,
Madeleine
