Samhain – zen BLITZ

Simple Ancestors’ Night Celebrations

I know this is short notice for most people who celebrate Samhain on October 31, but as I started planning for my own celebration this year, I was inspired to share a few simple ideas.

To start, I don’t always celebrate the Sabbat on Halloween – Often I celebrate it on the halfway point between the Autumn Equinox & the Winter Solstice, which for 2024 would be on November 6. (I’m not justifying my late post lol!) Another personal thing I wanted to point out is that I “do my own thing”, so I refer to the Sabbat commonly known as Samhain as Ancestors’ Night because that’s really what it is.

What is Samhain?

For those who don’t know, many occultists believe that the veil between our waking reality & the spirit world is especially thin this time of year, & it is celebrated as such by honoring the spirit world. We’ll all be joining it someday, so it’s important to many people to acknowledge this (”Memento Mori!”) and take some time to remember our loved ones who are no longer on our side of the veil. As I say about Dia de los Muertos, it’s a time to “celebrate life, & honor the dead”.

Simple Ideas for Celebrating

An Ancestor Altar. If you’re going to start one, keep it simple & keep it up year round. Just as Xmas should be a reminder to be generous throughout the year, Ancestors’ Night should be a reminder to remember daily where you came from & where you’ll be going. A small spot with a few photos & trinkets to remind you of your beloved departed are a beautiful reminder of how they influence who you are at your core. If you already have an ancestor altar or shrine, now would be a great time to thoroughly clean & refresh the space, adding or removing things as you see fit!
Candles. For quite a few years, I had a running list of proverbial ancestors (people not necessarily related to me who had a profound impact on my life and are no longer living, and even pets), and I would light a tealight candle for each of them. It turned into a fire hazard unfortunately, but it was a nice gesture at the time.
Letters. You can write a letter to any especially important ancestors, & tell them whatever you want! You can even burn it (safely, of course) to symbolically pass the message into the spirit realm.
Journal. Ask yourself if you’re carrying any dead weight, psychologically speaking, & how you can move past that in the coming months.
Hibernation goals. I’m listening to a flock of geese heading south right now, as a matter of fact. Nature is preparing to hibernate, harvesting what’s left for the journey into the cold months. Not that humans are able to hibernate, but it’s a good time to consider what you can do to slow down a bit more & enjoy some relaxation. Perhaps you’d like to read a book you haven’t yet found time for, or catch up on some sleep? Now might be a good time to think up some slow living goals.
Pumpkins. I’m sure you’re already carved your pumpkins, if that’s a thing you do. But if you have an uncarved pumpkin, harvest it! Scoop the shit out & make a pumpkin based dessert, or a savory soup! Roasted pumpkin seeds are really good for you too, and you can season them with just about anything you like (I’m particularly fond of cinnamon & sugar.)
Food. Make or buy your ancestors’ favorite foods as a way to honor them. My mom was always fond of surf & turf (steak & shrimp specifically), and I’m happy to make that for dinner lol! A couple of my favorite memories of my grandma were her hand grinding deli ham to make ham salad for sandwiches, and soup. She also kept me on a steady supply of homemade chicken noodle soup throughout my childhood. So, I love making my “magic” soup, with ingredients that are heavily inspired by her!

How do you honor your ancestors?

Share some ideas in the comments below – I’d love to hear them!!

Ghost Story #2 – The Ouija Board

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While I was always fascinated by Ouija boards (I got my first from my mom for my birthday when I was about 9), I never really believed in them. I’d always get messages like “stay away”, “danger”, & other ominous things for no apparent reason. I quite quickly realized how easily people can manipulate objects they’re not even trying to move. Or how often people will intentionally move things to make an experience more fun, lol!

In high school, I had a friend who did too much acid. She always said she was very in tune with spirits, & she was always saying she’d have weird things happen to her, & she’d get messages or feelings at random times. Even when she was sober. Of course, nobody believed her because she was so “out there”, but then one night we were bored & playing with the Ouija board in our other friend’s basement. I decided to take a break to smoke a cigarette because the “spirits we were talking to” were boring, and she asked if there was anyone I wanted to contact. I figured why not, & told her to try to contact my mom. And she did. It was the freakiest thing I’d ever experienced. I spent most of the time just asking tricky questions that no one else would know, & it was unbelievable! She didn’t have a whole lot of energy to work with, but she ended with something along the lines of “take care of your father, because no one else will”, and no truer words have ever been spoken. I took care of him for the rest of his life.

Moral of the story – don’t discount the Ouija board. Or hippies LOL

If you like this post, make sure to subscribe to my blog! And if you have any creepy stories you’d like to share, leave them in the comments below – I’d LOVE to hear them!

Here’s the previous installment of this series : Ghost Story #1 – The Man of the House

Ghost Story #1 : The Man of the House

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Since it’s Halloween season, and I’ve always wanted to share my ghost stories online, I thought I’d take the opportunity here. I plan to go in chronological order (the third story is my personal favorite), so let’s start with when I was a kid.

My mother was a huge Sci Fi fan, so I watched more than my share of Star Trek & Unsolved Mysteries when I was a kid. I had quite the active imagination, but I was also very skeptical – I always tried to find logical explanations for things I’d experienced. My first encounters with a spirit had no other explanation.

I was sitting on the couch in our living room, and my parents were sitting together in the kitchen behind me after dinner. From where I sat, I could see the hallway to the rest of the house. One night, I saw a man, glowing white & dressed in what I can only describe as 1950’s business attire, walk down the hallway to the rest of the house. I shouted, & told my parents, & of course they told me that there was no such thing as ghosts & not to worry.

But for a couple years after that, I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was around me whenever I was alone in the house. Now, the house isn’t that old. It’s not like anybody died here, so I had no idea who it could be. And that’s what really frightened me.

Another night, I was alone in the house. I was probably about 8 years old. My father was outside shoveling the driveway, in anticipation of my mother coming home from work. I was, again, watching tv on the couch. The living room & dining room were one room, separated by the couch. So, with my back to the dark dining room, I felt like someone was behind me. Not menacingly, just…there. I looked out the windows as though someone would possibly be casing my middle class family’s home with 3 feet of snow in the backyard, but there was no one there, nor was there anyone in the dining room. I tried to ignore it, but I couldn’t shake the unsettling feeling! So I got up & walked to the bathroom on the other side of the house. I just sat in there for a moment, before it felt like someone walked by the door & was standing in the doorway of the next bedroom over. You know how you can sense the movement in the air when someone quietly walks by you? That’s what it was. After a couple minutes of feeling like someone was waiting for me in the next room, I decided I’d rather wait impatiently for one of my parents to come in the house in a more comfortable spot, so I went back out & sat on the couch. A few seconds later, I felt someone walk by & sit back down in the dining room. It was like I could’ve watched them walk by, but I couldn’t see them. Another 10 minutes or so passed before I started panicking. I started pacing around the house, looking out the front door to see how close my dad was to finishing the driveway. It got to a certain point, where I just stood with my back to the front door, & I yelled out into the house 3 times in a row “I don’t know who you are or why you’re following me, but you’re scaring me! Please go away!” And it went away. Just like that.

Fast forward about not quite a decade, & I found out who it was. My mom admitted she believed in ghosts, but she wouldn’t tell me why. Come to find out, she was married once before my father, for about 10 years. They couldn’t have kids, so he got sucked into a gambling addiction, slipped into major depression, and eventually ended his own life. I absolutely think that spirit was his, just babysitting me when no one was around. And I feel like I’ve made peace with him. I also feel like he never really went away, just kept further distance.

So there’s my first ghost story! I have a few more to share, so stay tuned!

And if you have any spooky stories of your own that you’d like to share, please do! I’d LOVE to hear them!