Samhain Altar Photos

It was a very good rite last evening; a very transformative experience.  When I closed my eyes for the meditative/communing portion of the rite, it was quite different than what I'd expected.  Of course, I should know by now that you can't go into these things with expectations.  When I opened my eyes, I was amazed to find an hour had passed!  I know, shame on me keeping a clock nearby, but my ritual music is often playing on the laptop.  ;-)

 Found this lovely silver plate at Goodwill and thought it would make a lovely offering plate.  I was right!

 Departed family member photos...

To represent the little ones lost...

All-in-all a very good, very cleansing ritual.  Took the last of the food offerings outside and placed them under the tree.  Was a beautiful night.  If anyone has any Samhain altar photos that they would like to share here, please shoot me an email at goddessdaughtergems@gmail.com and I will gladly post them or links to them here.

"Somewhere in a hidden memory..."

All Souls Night by Loreena Mckennitt is a staple in my house at this time of year.  As I sit here listening to it, sipping hot cider, having enjoyed my shortbread cookies and trick-or-treating with the kids, I am reflecting back on the year.  It's been an eventful one.  My husband and I parted ways, I had to face losing my house, figure out how to support myself after years of being a stay-at-home-mother, enrolled in college, finally added a mollosser to the house again, continued to struggle with depression and basically keep my sanity.  Every day is hard.  I am still struggling with the loss of my marriage.

But I am thankful for a lot of things.  It was during this year that I found out just how strong I really am.  I also relied quite heavily on my faith and developed an even deeper appreciation for it, continuing my priestess training.  I found a measure of peace in my heart.  I am not all the way there; things are still restless within me.  But it is no small thing to say that I found some sort of peace.

Samhain is one of my favorite holidays of the year.  The spirits are everywhere.  You can almost hear their voices on the wind.  I often dream of things I believe are part of lifetimes past (hidden memories), and interestingly enough these are the things I end up NOT seeing during my meditations and ritual work on Samhain.  I am very much looking forward to tonight's rite.  The air tonight is crisp and cool and it feels like a good night to cross the veil.  Sending love and light to all my fellow pagans taking part in their own rites this evening and to departed loved ones.  Memories of you are not quite so hidden...

Altar Prep

So I waited a little late to do some altar prep for tonight's ritual.  I wish I could say that this is not typical of me.  :-/  I added a nice little pumpkin and some corn a while ago, but I do need to bring out my photos.  Samhain is after all when the veil between worlds is the thinnest than at any other time during the year, and it is during this time that we honor our loved ones, family, friends and/or pets that have passed on.  Their pictures sit upon the altar to remind us that though they are gone from our eyes, they are still with us in spirit and we should honor them. It is rainy and gloomy here today and it feels somewhat appropriate given the solemness of the holiday.

I usually use live flowers on my altar for rituals, but there are occasions where I use dried ones, such as Samhain.  Even though the flowers are no longer living, they are nonetheless very much real and still very beautiful.  They still garner respect and admiration.  To me this makes perfect sense given the nature of the holiday.  I put together this little arrangement earlier:

Tonight I will be performing my Samhain rite together with several other folks, so it should be a good one.  I am very much looking forward to it.  Now off to make some cider, get some work done and prepare for tonight.  Blessed Samhain, everyone!

Samhain/Halloween

I will of course post my own take/rituals for this holiday in another post, but I figured it might be cool to also post this:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain