A Samhain Journey of Ancestral Healing
The days are growing shorter and autumn is deepening. s grow shorter and autumn deepens, we find ourselves at a powerful threshold. This time of year, Samhain, marks a moment when the veil between worlds is at its thinnest, inviting us to connect with our ancestors and explore the deeper mysteries within. For me, this season has brought profound experiences, as if ancient threads from my past—my grandparents, my aunt, and my own spirit—are guiding me through a journey of healing, release, and rebirth.
This journey began unexpectedly. After Hurricane Helene, I found a small vireo, tragically electrocuted, lying there as though it had arrived in my life with purpose. I felt compelled to keep it, yet a deeper call whispered that I needed to release it. On Samhain night, during a fire-walking ceremony, I let the bird go to the flames in a cauldron, adding a smokey quartz crystal—a grounding stone meant to hold and transform energy. Remarkably, the smokey quartz changed to clear quartz, as though mirroring my journey from holding onto the past to embracing clarity and freedom. It felt like a cleansing for both the bird’s spirit and my own.
Honoring Our Ancestors and Learning from Persephone
Through this act, I felt the presence of all my past grandparents and my dear aunt, their energies woven into the night’s ritual. It was as though they stood with me, guiding me to release not only my own burdens but ancestral ones as well. I honored their memory, grateful for the wisdom they imparted and the courage they modeled. I felt they were urging me to heal—to clear the wounds and unspoken stories they carried, creating a path forward unburdened by the past.
In reflecting on this journey, I am reminded of Persephone, the goddess who bravely descends into the underworld each autumn. Persephone’s story embodies the courage it takes to face the dark and to find beauty and strength within it. She embraces her role as queen of the underworld with grace, transforming a place of shadows into one of growth and understanding. Persephone teaches us that the dark isn’t to be feared—it’s a realm where we can discover deeper truths and release what no longer serves us. Like her, we, too, can learn to embrace the mystery of winter as a time of transformation, trusting that we will emerge in spring with newfound strength.
A New Cycle: Embracing Darkness as a Path to Rebirth
As Samhain marks the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, we’re invited to enter this darker half of the year with bravery and curiosity. Our trials in the coming days, weeks, and months are an invitation to breathe deeply and listen to the wisdom of the dark. There is a message waiting in the shadows—a quiet but powerful voice urging us to understand what this time of reflection, release, and transformation is here to teach.
This message is written for all of us who find ourselves at this threshold, especially those who are working to understand parts of themselves they might have once feared or hidden. We are walking this path together, each discovering what the darkness is ready to reveal, and we can take comfort in the shared courage it takes to explore these depths.
This Samhain, I am reminded that transformation is not about erasing the past; it’s about honoring it, releasing it, and allowing ourselves to emerge anew. Like the clear quartz born from the smokey stone, we, too, are transformed when we let go and trust. As we honor our ancestors, embrace the mysteries of Persephone’s descent, and step into the quiet cycles of the earth, may we find the courage to face our own shadows.
May we carry the light within, knowing that even in the deepest night, we hold the seeds of our most radiant selves. We are reborn—bravely, like Persephone, ready to embrace the dark and the wisdom it offers.
