Samhain Ritual

Prologue:
Samhain (pronounced Sow-en) crowns the Celtic New Year, a day to expunge the previous year's unwanted elements, while retaining the valued achievements and lessons. The strongest way to accomplish this is performing a ritual with a finality that you are able to begin the new year with a clear, positive, and strong foundation. This ritual is ONE way to go about bringing in the New Year. Any of its aspects are free to be altered for your specific personality and/or supplies; I encourage you to change it to fit you better! More importantly, understand that there is no "wrong" way to do this, except if you don't enjoy yourself. *smile* Keep it fun! No one is going to lop off your head if you don't do it word for word.

Materials:
Pen and Paper
2 Candles (One White, One Black)
Ritual Water (Sea water, or some other naturally flowing source, is ideal, but tap water with salt is fine if no other source is readily available)
Incense and Censer
Chalice or Bowl (whichever comes first)

Ritual and Meanings:
Kneel before the laid out materials, use an alter if you like, but a simple table or floor space is fine. The general layout should be: Black and White candles in the center with some space between them, the Chalice with water and the Incense in between the candles, and the Paper and Pen just before the Chalice and Incense.

Take up the pen and paper and write down all the events, thoughts, and emotions of the past year that you no longer want to have an influence on the upcoming year. (Fight with your boss or parents? Be done with it.) Make the list as long and detailed as necessary. Obviously, some people have had worse years than others and their list will be longer. The list defines the intent of the ritual, specifying EXACTLY what is going to be banished.

When complete, fold the paper a few times while suspending it over the incense. The Incense represents the element of Air and is a facilitator of Purification. In history, whenever there was dead (either from natural death, war, or sacrifice) to be disposed of the bodies were burned and the smoke would rise, carrying away the essence, or spirit, of the dead. Thus, we mirror this understanding in our simple ritual, allowing the smoke to carry away the unwanted parts of last year. Some would ask why Fire isn't the purifier, but that will be addressed in a short moment.

After folding it, lay the paper down and sprinkle a few drops (DON'T SOAK!) of water on the paper and also encircle it with water using your finger. Be sure to keep your focus on the intent. The Water, obviously, is the Element of Water, and will bind the emotions you included in your letter (i.e. Anger towards boss.) Water is often used to represent the emotional parts of life, just like the Cups Suit (cups hold water) in the Tarot.

Finally, take the paper and burn it, first in the black candle, then the white. Turn as much as possible into ashes, but don't burn your fingers doing it; duh *smile*. It would help if you had some type of tool handy to hold the tip of the paper while it burns completely. Again, be sure to keep your focus on the intent. The Candle meanings are founded on multiple levels. First, the colors, black and white are used to signify Balance (the center principle of Witchcraft). The Incense and Chalice are placed between the candles to symbolize their Balance as well. Second, the Fire, is the achiever, bringing the Finality to the last year by burning the unwanted area, and THEN the smoke carries away the bad. (Note: this is why fire is not the purifier, it is allows the smoke to "escape," and marks the finality.) Lastly, the candles include the element of Fire into the ritual.

When the list is completely burnt, put the whole of the ashes into the Chalice with the ritual water, then take a small sip from it. The drinking of water and ashes is partaking of your sacrifice, a recognition that part of your life will be gone, making way for the new, and a bonding of yourself to what remains from the previous year.

The rest of the water and ashes pour into the soil from which a plant grows. This plant can be of any kind, a house plant, a wild rose bush, an oak tree, etc. The idea here is the traditional "as without, so within" principle. The aid of the water and ash in the growth and development of the plant will facilitate the same within yourself.

With this, close your ritual as desired according to your Tradition and practices and clean up.

Clean Up:
When you clean up, the Chalice should be wiped, not washed, and the candles should be snuffed out, not blown out. To wash or blow out is traditionally considered disrespectful. Disrespectful to whom depends on your Tradition (i.e. disrespectful to Ancestors, God/Goddess, and/or the elements itself.)

The traditional practice of cleaning up so that no one would be aware that any ritual was ever performed on that spot comes from fear of persecution, but it is always good practice to clean up that well just out of courtesy others that use the same area.

Other Issues:
Your own personal words should be added. Include them for every step if you wish, or only for a few, or whathaveyou. I omitted any words because I wish to encourage your own creativity and keep it interesting. Also, I feel if I added the words, beginners would believe it imperative to perform word-for-word and this would make it too mechanical, and, consequently, less effective (not to mention, less fun.) Feel free to be as poetic as you wish, and to dedicate it to whomever you wish (i.e., Ancestor, or God/Goddess.) Tradcrafters do not use magick circles because the whole house is seen as purified and guarded and therefore we have no use of them. If your Tradition does use them, simply cast the circle in the beginning and close it after you clean up. Similarly, tradcrafters do not generally do rituals skyclad (in the nude.) Clothing does not inhibit the flow of energy, however, if you would rather do it skyclad, either because of tradition or personal preference, so be it... go for it.

I can't think of anything I may have missed, but perhaps I didn't address a question you had. I therefore leave it open for you to email me with any questions that may arise: witchdawn@hotmail.com

Peace,
Markus