Samhain Ritual

To prepare the self:

Bathe as usual and anoint with oil of an appropriate scent for the season. Wear fire-safe clothes in colors of black, orange, red, brown, or golden yellow. Wear magickal jewelry and flowers or a hair wreath made of plants of the season.

To prepare the circle:

Sweep. ¤ Lay out cord. ¤ Position altar with black and orange or Halloween-themed cloth. ¤ Position God and Goddess candles. ¤ Position other God and Goddess representations. ¤ Add Earth bowl and salt at north. ¤ Add incense burner and incense. ¤ Add candleholder and black, orange, red, brown, or golden yellow candle at south. ¤ Add goblet and water at west. ¤ Put pentacle at north. ¤ Put wand at east. ¤ Put athame at south. ¤ Put chalice at west. ¤ Add bolline to south. ¤ Add matches to south. ¤ Add match holder to north. ¤ Add wet napkins to west. ¤ Add bell to west. ¤ Add libation bowl to north. ¤ Add any decorations for the season. ¤ Have three Goddess candles on the left of the cauldron (one white, one red, one black) and three God candles on the right of the cauldron (one yellow, one green, one black), and then one black candle IN the cauldron. ¤ Have some sage handy. ¤ Have paper and a pen to write weaknesses. ¤ Have photos or mementos of crossed-over loved ones. ¤ Have materials for wish tree and the flower-less tree from Mabon at the left of the altar, and blessing oil or other honoring oil. ¤ Put an apple on a plate on the right of the altar, and have handy cider, mulled wine, or cranberry juice. ¤ Have yarn ready for finger-knitting. ¤ Complete with feasting foods of the season.

Begin ritual: Cast the circle. Sit inside and focus, and invoke the God and Goddess.

Meditation (to seasonal music if desired):

Tonight, the veil between the living and the dead is thinned because of the God’s passage through it. We are now closer to the realm of the departed than any other time of the year. Now our God is separated from us because of our ties to life, and we must hold fast to those ties and await His return. Now He is cleansed and recycled in the Dark Goddess’s cauldron, and we must examine ourselves as He does in the other world. The two realms are not as separate as they seem. At this dark time, we must remember those who have passed into the darkness, accept our own eventual deaths, and close the doors on projects of the year. We must appeal to the wise parts of ourselves to get this done in the most efficient way. Now we honor the departed God, and our loved ones who have crossed over; we give thanks for those who followed the ways of the Craft before us and were persecuted for their “sins,” and we give messages and tidings to those dead that will have them. We must be strong and release our weaknesses, to look straight on at ourselves and acknowledge what we see, and renew ourselves, as the God does, for the coming year.¹

Opening Honor:

Light the three Goddess candles on the left of the cauldron, the black one last. As each is lit, acknowledge maiden, mother, crone. Concentrate on the crone, the Goddess of wisdom, who has taken the God within Her even as Her mother aspect is heavy with Her impending birth. Now light the three God candles on the right of the cauldron, the black one last. As each is lit, acknowledge child sun king, father of the hunt, and lord of the underworld. Concentrate on the lord of the underworld, the God of wisdom, who has crossed over to be recycled, renewed, and reborn. Now light the final black candle IN the cauldron, concentrate on the candle and see the God and Goddess as one, the God having traveled inside Her and become part of Her.²

Write your weaknesses, one by one, on pieces of paper, and light them with the black candle, then throw them in the cauldron. As they are consumed by fire, imagine your weaknesses melting away and yourself being renewed through the Goddess’s cauldron. Feel them burn away.³

Concentrate again on the black candle and ask for it to ward negative energies away, keeping any malicious spirits from you. Sprinkle sage into each quarter of the circle, for spirit contact, and add some to the cauldron. Now ask the Goddess to lift the veil between worlds a bit so that you may reach the God’s influence and also commune with the dead from our world. Invite those spirits with which you’d like to commune and share a few select items of your feast with them. These can be set out later after you have partaken a small amount. (This is not the feast yet.) Say anything you like to your dearly departed. Play them songs or read them poems if you’d like. Focus on thanking those who died during the Burning Times, either nobly or accidentally by being associated with our Craft, and give thanks for the survival of at least some of the Old Ways.

Pour a glass of a chosen toasting beverage and lift it to the black candle still burning inside the cauldron. Drink to the God’s crossover and your dearly departed and pour a libation. Put out the black candle.

Samhain Activities:⁴

Wish Tree can be worked on now. Take leaves off of the tree and put them around the base, and anoint the bare parts with blessing oil or other anointing oil; meditate on each wish as you do so and think about what wishes have come true. Take the tags of the wishes off the tree and burn them in the cauldron; keep their ashes to fertilize next year’s Wishing Tree.

Try a scrying session by using a bowl of darkly colored water and staring into it. This is the best night for divination of all types. They will not be discussed here, except that with the presence of so many spirits to answer questions and the veil being so thin, divination is much more effective this night. Also you might try past-life regression, since the cauldron of the Goddess, where you would have been recycled since your last life, is so close, and also you might try astral projection. All of these things require time and instruction, and if you are only just learning them or have never tried them, this night might NOT be the night to learn, as you don’t know what you’re dealing with and will probably have unsatisfactory if not unpleasant results.⁵

You may remove the pine cones and fallen leaves from your corn dolly of Mabon. She can be dressed in a mourning shroud and carry a broom, perhaps dressed like a traditional storybook witch.

Ritual Core:

Look into a mirror, stare into your own eyes, and make a secret wish to come true during the Samhain season.

Make peace with the dead and ask the Goddess for protection from anything that might bother you once you remove your circle. Draw a protection rune on your forehead in a traditional oil or blessing oil: ALGIZ works well.

Toast the dead God and the mourning Goddess with wine or cranberry juice. Wish the Goddess a smooth delivery and the God a smooth rebirth, and ask once more for Their blessings in the dark time.

BANISH THE MABON SEASON AND INVOKE THE SAMHAIN SEASON with banishing and invoking pentagrams. Ring the bell and say “it is done” or “so mote it be.”

Follow-up:

Greet the new season with a toast and pour a libation. Now celebrate the God’s crossover with a feast. Begin the feast by cutting the apple, separating the stem from the bottom, to see the five seeds inside arranged in a pentagram. Eat one bite from both sides, acknowledging your acceptance of both sides of life: Light and dark, male and female, life and death. Put the remainder of the apple in the libation bowl.⁶ Now begin the feast. Make sure to share everything you’ve eaten with the libation bowl.

Finger-knit and tie your rope to the previous years’ ever-growing rope. Meditate on the meaning of this weaving to symbolize the journey. Think about previous Samhains you might have celebrated, and what has transpired in your life since you finger-knitted for Mabon.

Closing:

Thank the God and Goddess for coming and put out their candles with a pinch or a snuffer, and thank all elementals, then earth and close the circle. Put anything that was given in the cauldron into the libation bowl also, excluding the candle and its holder. When the circle is broken, the first thing you should do is go outside and bury the contents of the libation bowl, then commence cleaning up. Document anything important in your Book of Shadows. Change any decorations around your house that you have to reflect the new season.

Alternatives and Additions:

If you wish, you may leave goodies out for the little people, animals, or whatever you choose. You may dedicate this food to them before the ritual’s core.

This Sabbat is conducive to magickal workings having to do with spells for neutralizing harm, protection spells, spells that deal with the dead, strength spells. If magick is to be done, do it right before the feast.

If dancing, singing, or any other personal or individual merriment is scheduled, it can be done either after the feast and the core of the ritual, OR it can be done after the circle is broken.

Footnotes:

1--Groups can alternate speaking lines of this as a chant, and use “we” instead of “I.”
2--Each candle can be bourne by a representative from each walk of life, if one is available in the coven. It can be play-acted in any case with appropriate clothes. Each can make a speech of who he or she is, and have the others besides crone and lord of the underworld bow out.
3--This of course can be done by throwing weaknesses into the communal fire in a coven situation.
4--With groups, it may be preferable to do these activities outside circle, or in such a way that the High Priest and Priestess lead and allow everyone else to contribute in a small way, so that it does not take up the entire ritual.
5--This may actually be a perfect time for coven elders to help neophytes learn these arts, or for working partners to guide each others’ flights or past life regressions.
6--Working partners should each take a bite of the apple and then switch; in coven situations, just pass each piece around to make sure everyone gets a bite.