Happy Samhain, all!

Blue Moon Circle held our ritual and feast last night, and had a wonderful time. I thought I'd share our simple ritual with you, in case you needed a little inspiration. As always, we had candles to light in honor of our ancestors and anyone we'd lost in the past year or so. (Sadly, with four of this, that added up to a lot of pets this time.)

The Samhain altar, all set up and ready to go

Then we made corn dollies. You can find easy instructions on YouTube, but all you need is the husk off an ear of corn, and some string or twine, and a pair of scissors.

Corn dolly prep

 

The finished dolly!

Because Samhain is considered to be both the end of the old year and the beginning of the new year, we each wrote one one piece of paper what we want to let go of, on another what we wanted to bring in, and a blank paper for the gods/universe to fill in for us. Then we tucked those papers into the dollies' skirts. (If it hadn't been raining, we would have tossed them in a bonfire. Instead, they're going on our altars.)

(We would normally have tossed the dollies into the bonfire, but it was raining, which is why we were inside. So they went on our altars instead.)

Then we said this spell:

The old year goes, the new year comes

It’s Samhain time again

Raise your voice and beat the drums

The old year’s at its end

 

Letting go of what’s behind

To welcome in the new

Clear away the ties that bind

To all the things you rue

 

Open up potential’s door

Let the bonfires burn

The new year brings us joys galore

As now the seasons turn

A blessed Samhain to you and yours!