“May the protection of the ancestors be yours...”

(inspired by Samhain and Scorpio New Moon of 2018 - November 7 @ 8:02am)

Samhain Blessings!

The ancient Celts celebrated Samhain as a threshold festival heralding not only winter and the dark half of the year, but also the New Year. All life begins in the darkness - a truth mothers remember in their wombs - day follows night, revelations follow dreams, life follows death, and so the wheel turns...

The Samhain portal opened on October 31 ("Calendar Samhain") and continues through November 7. The veils are thin and thinning still.

I think of the veils between the worlds somewhat like curtains. The metaphorical curtains become gauzy around Samhain, revealing for a moment or so the Unseen realms…I also think of the veils like a woman’s cervix, softening and thinning to the point of disappearing through pregnancy and labor.

As I write this note to you, my body is re-membering the birth of my son, Taliesin (We celebrated his first birthday on Sunday. How can it be?!)...I’m reminded that the thinning of the veils is a wholly natural process, but not necessarily easy or painless. 

It is a potent time indeed! Personally, the Samhain season is a poignant time - my grandmother’s stroke 6 years ago, my son’s birth last year, annual magical gatherings...a time of endings and beginnings, a time when we can truly feel the presence of our ancestors if we turn towards the Unseen realms. 

They are watching over us - we are never alone - they are in our blood and bones and breath and dreams. Do you know what I mean?

This is the time for such Knowings - this Samhain season, when the veils between the worlds are thin. Communication with those on the Otherside happens with greater ease. Dreams are more potent. Spirits are out and about. Ancestors are whispering.

They’re here, all around us, moving through all things, bearing messages if we are so inclined to pay attention - for those who have eyes to see and ears to listen...Look to your dreams and synchronistic moments and out-of-the-ordinary happenings. They're here to help us through the challenging times and to protect us along our journeys. 

Whether your relationship was easeful or conflict-ridden, visitations (especially in dreams when we are less likely to rationalize them away) can heal the rift - granting forgiveness, closure, support and protection. 

So go ahead, peer through the veils as they thin...open to the Great Mystery in your waking and sleeping life, soften to the Eternal. 

This practice of opening and softening is so important in this time of increasing polarization, rigidity, fear and aggression. It’s not simply a practice to help you personally feel a little bit better. If enough of us choose to cultivate moments of expansion, then maybe we can all, at a collective level, see the bigger picture and somehow know and play our roles with more clarity, compassion and even urgency. 

Now is an opportunity to heal old wounds and ancestral pains, to plant seeds of transformation, and to see things as they really are, without the veils of illusion and separation. 

You are not alone. You are surrounded by an intricate web of support, held and watched over by seen and unseen allies. 

Speaking of allies...

MAGICAL ALLY: Rosemary

Rosemary essential oil is a favorite of mine these days. To be with rosemary is to cultivate remembrance - from basic things on your to-do list to your Higher Self and original purpose/birth right. 

• Combine rosemary, lavender and chamomile essential oil in a bit of coconut oil and rub on your feet for dream remembrance.

• Carry a sprig of rosemary in your pocket to help you with an exam or important presentation.

• Place a rosemary plant at your front gate or doorway for friendly boundaries - let the Good in and ward off Harm.

• At Samhain, leave a few sprigs at threshold places (windows and doorways) to welcome your ancestors and through them, welcome healing to your bloodlines. 

• Dilute rosemary essential oil in coconut oil and rub into your scalp for increased vitality. 


You can order a bottle of rosemary EO HERE - this one feels and smells so good!
Or, if you’d like to get the same oil for Wholesale, join my team HERE.  

RITUAL: House of Remembrance

Follow in the footsteps of the druids. Create a House (room/closet/bed) of Remembrance. 

Materials:
- dark room
- candle
- rosemary sprig
- journal

Prepare with a prayer for connection and protection. Turn to each of the directions and say: May there be peace in the East. May there be peace in the South. May there be peace in the West. May there be peace in the North. Pause and connect with a prayer for Samhain, a prayerful commune with your ancestors. You may include these words if they resonate:

“May there be peace upon all who have passed into the other world. I remember [loved ones]. Though [my] ancestral kindred have stepped beyond the threshold of this world, yet they have left their wisdom behind.”
 (Caitlin Matthews’ Celtic Wisdom Book)

Then turn out all the lights, close the door, pull the blackout curtains across the windows. Sit in the dark. Just sit. Connect to your breath, blood and bones, and through your breath, blood and bones, connect to your ancestors. Then ask: Who is here? What is the Message? And again, sit, wait, listen, feel. 

When you are ready, light your candle and place your rosemary sprig in the flame (careful not to start a fire). Journal in a stream of consciousness style. 

When you are done, snuff out the light and say a prayer of gratitude as you release any visitors. At morning light, you may be inspired to turn your writing into a poem and speak your words aloud outside. 

And to close, a POEM for you:

Beannacht, by John O’Donohue

On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.
 
And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The grey window
And the ghost of loss
Gets into you,
May a flock of colours,
Indigo, red, green
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.
 
When the canvas frays
In the currach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.
 
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.
 
And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.

Love,
Jennifer