Reva Seybolt | Life Coach | Vermont USA

My apologies for my long silence. All of my personal commitments for 2019 fell into mid-August through mid- October and my blog time disappeared.

I return to you now to honor the change of season known as Samhain in Celtic lands, All Saint’s Day in the Christian Church, Day of the Dead in Mexico, and Calan Gaeaf in Wales. In northern land-based societies, the harvest is now done, the compost piles built, the woodpiles opened up, and the buttoning down for winter is in process. In many northern religious and spiritual traditions, November 1st, the approximate day halfway between the Fall Equinox and Winter Solstice, is considered the start of winter. In all these celebrations of November 1st, we also recognize that this is when the mundane world is the closest to the other worlds.

November 1st begins the seven weeks between Samhain and Solstice.

Within our culture, this is probably the most unlikely time for someone to truly turn inward, let alone dive deep. If at all, we usually start after the light turns at Solstice or after Christmas or the New Year, but by then the seed is sown. The seed is sown in the darkness and the underground not in the returning light. As Cal Garrison, the Wiccan and astrologer says “ the only way you can really begin to see is in total darkness. And that may be true because it’s the issues of our shadow self that keeps us from being fully who we are.” This is the time to let all of the old year go into the physical and mental-emotional composts. It is the time to embrace the darkness and all of who we are.

So what do you want to let go of from this past year?

What do you want to nurture for the coming year? This is not like January’s New Year’s resolutions. It is more like dream work: opening to the unconscious self and its connections to the other worlds, opening to the void and letting all that teach me. What are those things that I am avoiding? What ideas are niggling at me? What is the sense of beckoning that I am too busy to follow up on? And most importantly, what is there that I am not even aware of?

I go into October 31st with a list of the things that I want to let go of, to let compost.

This year it is my rage at the political situations around the world, my frustrations, and fear of aging, and my still present propensity to beat myself up, to name the top ones. I often use the woodstove or a bonfire in which to burn these. Other times, I bury them in my compost pile. Sometimes I do this with others and sometimes alone. This year I will be physically alone.

I also build a list of ideas that I want to work with and try to state them in the most expansive way I can. I read them when I get in bed on the 31st as in working with dreams. My intention is to seed the next weeks with my conscious intentions which I will check in with. It is the time of year that I use my journal the most. I start reaffirming the business that I am in: To be conscious and to understand and work with the energies. Some years that definition gets tweaked in this time.

Then I add more specific intentions for that year.

This year, I want to transition from setting up my new home to digging in my roots. I want to open to what this place is on deeper levels and what I can bring to it. I want to let go of my rage and fixations on the political- social worlds and open to a new way of working with what is out there. I want to deepen my understanding of what is happening in the natural world and what is my role.

Usually, nothing amazing happens when I wake on Samhain. Some years I tossed and turned all night. It is a process. I am setting the intention and opening with joy to whatever happens. I will do my end of remaining as conscious as I can and following up through this season. At Solstice, I usually spend at least part of the day in silence to explore the past weeks since Samhain and setting my intentions for the light’s return. One of the side benefits of this practice is that I have come to love November, cherishing the warm, sunny days and going in on the bleak, windy ones.

Take whatever time you can make available this week and over the next seven. Watch for the other side giving you nudges. It isn’t always a smooth time as you are asking for change so flow with it the best you can, knowing that Spirit is supporting you. Have a great Samhain!