Samhain Blessings 2014

Today is Samhain. It is one of the most important of the 8Sabbats as it is the Pagan New year. The wheel of the year has turned full circle and a new year begins. The word Samhain means Summers end. It is pronouncedSowin.Samhain is the third of the harvest festivals, only this isn’t a harvest of crops or grain it is the harvest of flesh. It was the time of year when farmers and families would slaughter cattle and preserve the meat to last through the cold winter months.

Samhain is a festival of death as it is the death of the year and of the waxing Sun. It is also the death of the earth when Plants, seeds, and acorns are now slowly descending underground to ready themselves to be reborn in Spring. Animals will start to hibernate, and the earth will appear Barron as it sleeps through the winter months.

Earth energies are being pull inwards at this time, this is the time we should also be looking inwards at ourselves. Contemplate the year we have had and what lessons we have learned, whether they were good or bad, what can we take from them and use in the future.

The God of the waxing Sun descends into the underworld opening up the veil between the two worlds of the living and the dead. At Samhain spirits can commune with the living and visit us. We remember our ancestors and the people and pets who have died, we honor them by placing pictures of them on our altars and invite them to join us. We should also adorn our altars with seasonal fare such as fallen leaves, twigs, acorns, nuts, turnips, and pumpkins and offer these as gifts to the Triple Goddess who is now in her crone phase, she is the wise dark mother of knowledge and days past.

Although a time of death Samhain is also a time of fresh starts and new beginnings. It is a time of ‘out with the old and in with the new’ To start looking forward and to our future.

On Samhain we should light a fire as this is primarily a Celtic fire festival where the villagers and towns folk would light giant bonfires to say goodbye to the God of the waxing Sun and to thank the Goddess for her harvest of gifts bestowed upon the earth. There would also be big feast with stews, corn and breads and we would give thanks for people in our lives and show gratitude for all that we have, and we give thanks to the people who are no longer with us and invite them to join us at the feast.

Light a candle tonight and put it at a window facing West, to light the way for our lost loved ones and invite their spirits to visit us.

Today is a great time for divination, for doing tarot reading and looking to the future and asking ourselves how we can improve our lives and move forward for the coming year.

Have a Blessed Samhain.

Keep safe everyone!

*Full written credit goes to Wicca Teachings. Photos credited to Various.*

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Partial Solar Eclipse Today!

If you’re able to see this, please send along a photo to share. 🙂 It’s a very dark, wet day here, so I don’t expect to see a thing.

The Full Blood Moon Returns

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/03/tech/innovation/second-blood-moon/index.html?eref=edition

http://www.tarot.com/astrology/lunar-eclipse-aries-2014?partner=fb-tarot

Tonight is the Full Moon, known as the Blood Moon because between now and Samhain/Halloween was the harvest of flesh. It was the time when the farming community would slaughter cattle and preserve the meat to last through the winter months. Poorer families would use the brightness of this Full Moon to go hunting for their meat. So it became known as the Blood Moon. It is also called the Hunters Moon, the Shedding Moon, or the Falling Leaf Moon.

This Full Moon there was a lunar eclipse earlier today when the Moon, the Earth, and the Sun are in perfect alignment, and the Earth casts a shadow over the Moon so it becomes a deep blood red.

The Full Moon is in Aries, making it all about pent up emotions and balance. The eclipse will also have your emotions reeling and will have you asking yourself are you in the right place you wish to be at this time and questioning your current situation.

The Aries Lunar Eclipse requires us to be balanced in our masculine and feminine energies. Masculinity is not better than Femininity. Femininity is not better than Masculinity. We need a balance of both male and female to be whole. This will bring you towards greater self-expression and freedom. You may feel a strong need to stand up for yourself and speak your truth. Let us remember to give others plenty of room to be who they are and speak their truth too.

You are born again in the Aries cleansing fire. Let go of the false self. Embrace who you really are. Be heart-centered. Liberate your mind. This is real freedom. Lunar eclipses signal a completion and an awareness that could change the course of our journey if we let it.

The heart may skip a beat as raw emotions surface now and energies are charged up. This is par for the course. Allow anger and agitation to rise up and clear out without jabbing anyone with the energy. You don’t have to allow things to become volatile, instead use these emotions to look inwards on yourself rather than outwards blaming others.

Take positive action in advance by being responsible for your emotions and reactions to things. Direct the pent up or stuck emotional energy into organizing, working out or anything that burns off the ‘gunk’ and exhausts you in a good way.

This eclipse opens a window until November 3rd of a time that supports deep change. The energy of this Full Moon can be a bit challenging if you are not in alignment with what you need at this time. May you finally get the message and leave the past behind, honoring the experiences by making them conscious and giving them meaning.

We are on the threshold of knowing things that will alter the course and direction of our lives, and how our minds are able to recognize signs and signals and bring forth messages from the Spiritual realms. This eclipse comes to remind us that who we are is written nowhere but in our own hearts, and it is there we will discover it.

This Full Moon, use the energy to heal, healing energies are very strong now, look inside yourself and ask what it is you need to heal your hurt, pain, emotions. Clear your mind of negativity and try to look to a brighter and more positive future in the year ahead, make the decision to make big changes, this Moons energy will help you achieve them.

May you have a blessed Full Moon and may the Goddess watch over you.

 

Written credit goes to Wicca Teachings. Photos are credited to Various. 

 

Welcome October