Celebrating Samhain 2012
Today, October 31, is one of our favourite holidays and days of the year! Known as Halloween to most people in North America, it is also called by the ancient Celtic name of Samhain (pronounced SOW-hin). Outside of the cultural celebration elements we all know about – trick-or-treating, dressing up in costumes and eating lots of treats – Samhain is also celebrated as a high holiday (sabbat) in the Neopagan and Wiccan Wheel of the Year.
Sunset on the night of Samhain marks Celtic New Year and the festival continues until sundown on November 1. Samhain marks the end of the harvest season and this calendar year it also roughly coincides with the Full Moon (which was completely full on Monday, October 29). Like Beltane, which is opposite Samhain in the Wheel of the Year, Samhain is one of the times when the veil between worlds is said to be the thinnest.To read more about the history of Samhain, see our article from last year about its history and lore.
This year we decided to focus more on ways you can celebrate Samhain, so here’s ideas about how to observe this sabbat.
Read more on the Wonderworks Blog »
However you choose to celebrate, have a Happy Halloween and Blessed Samhain from all of us here at Wonderworks!
Look at these gorgeous pumpkins, aren’t they just perfect? I really do love this time of year.
On Wednesday morning, I woke up with a splitting migraine. I’ve had them ever since I was around 11 years old, in varying degrees of severity and frequency. (For anyone counting, that means I’ve experienced migraines for more than half of my life.) In grade 12 (senior year of high school), I had one that lasted 3 weeks straight and that was pretty much hell on Earth.
On the plus side, I’ve has the migraines pretty much under control for about a year and a half. I still get them occasionally, but usually they’re not as severe as they once were. Wednesday was an exception to this.
I think it was my body’s way of tell me to slow down. Also, it had been cold and rainy here the past few days, but very humid. I find that when we have that kind of weather I’m more prone to them. It’s kind of a double whammy - weather + stress and I get knocked out. In this particular the migraine basically forced me back to sleep for an extra 7 hours. (Sometimes there’s also the trifecta of migraine - PMS added into the combination, when that happens, I’m usually screwed).
When I finally woke up from my extended slumber, I felt groggy but I really wanted to go for a walk to clear my head. It wasn’t raining anymore, but it was very dark, a bit foggy and the sky was completely grey. I also was nursing what I like to call my migraine handgover, but apparently the technical medical name for the phenomenon is postdrome.
When I experience postdrome, it’s hard to explain or really to put into words. Everything feels very dreamlike and kind of ethereal. I feel a mixed emotion somewhere between depersonalization and euphoria, but the entire world looks very beautiful. I also sometimes get really strong food cravings - this time it happened to be my #1 weakness, which is dark chocolate. The craving combined with craving fresh air meant one thing, time for a walk.
I decided to go for a wander down to the nearby Distillery District to get some chocolate from Soma, which is pretty much the most delicious stuff in the universe.
Anyway, this has all been a bit of a long-winded preamble to explain the state of mind I was in when I took these photos.
The pumpkins were just so lovely, perfect and magical - they looked like they fell right out a dream or fairytale.
It’s funny to even think of it this way, but had I not woken up with a migraine of doom, I probably wouldn’t have seen them at all. I would have been at work until dark and then come. It’s funny how even the worst experiences (in this case, extreme physical pain/sickness) can sometimes have silver linings along the way.
~sparrowqueen♥
It’s almost 3am and I really should be sleeping, but check it out! HALLOWEEN TAROT! Ooooohhhahhhh!
Upcoming Samhain Related Events at Wonderworks
Best Witches Exhibition Opening (in the Fleishman Gallery)
Artist: Monica Bordirksy
October 11th to November 9th; Opening Reception - Thursday, October 11th, 7 – 9pm
Cost: FreeThis exhibit consists of seven oil portraits of witches: contemporary, historical, real and imagined. The artist has taken a close look at the lives and expressions of archetypes and individuals who were labeled, portrayed, or identified as a ‘witch’. More information
Juicy Fridays!! Presents Celebrating Samhain with Candice Craig
Friday, October, 7pm
Cost: FreeSamhain, (pronounced SAOW-in) literally means Summer’s end, and is the third and final Harvest.
Many gifts and sacrifices were given in thanks for the harvest. Samhain is considered by some, as a time to celebrate the lives of those who have passed on, and it often involves paying respect to ancestors, family members, elders of the faith, friends, pets and other loved ones who have died. More information
Samhain Personal Readings: Tarot and Palmistry with Deirdre Norman and Melanie Ollenberg
Saturday, October 27, 12 pm - 5 pm
Cost: 20 minute readings for $20As we approach Samhain and the veil between worlds grows thinner, divination is an even more powerful tool of insight. We invite you to explore what insights the mystical can provide, with Tarot and Palmistry readings by Deirdre Norman and Melanie Ollenberg. More information
Upcoming events at Wonderworks for the most wonderful, witchy time of year! So very excited!
Wonderworks Deck of the Week: The Halloween Tarot
By Kipling West
Wonderworks adores The Halloween Tarot!
This playful take on the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot imagery is delightful, light-hearted and also easy to interpret. Follow the decks’s resident black cat (representative of the knowledge seeker - the position the Fool takes in most decks) as she journeys through the Major and Minor Arcana. Through looking at the cat’s position in each card, the reader gets a better idea of the querent’s position relating to the situation or circumstance being inquired about.
The traditional minor arcana suits of Pentacles, Swords, Wands and Cups are replaced with Pumpkins, Bats, Imps and Ghosts, respectively. The new suits still maintain their elemental attributions and general correspondences. The illustrations on each card are bright and whimsical, the colour pallett features predominantly oranges, greens, purples and black.
The Halloween Tarot also has reoccurring motifs related to the popular celebration of North American Halloween including candy corn, witches, bats, classic film monsters and jack-o-lanterns - all intermingling with traditional RWS tarot symbolism. Overall, the tone of this deck is carefree and jovial and the cartoonish illustration style only adds to this.
This deck is sure to delight Halloween enthusiasts and tarot collectors alike (though I’m sure there’s a lot of overlap in those two groups!) This deck is accessible to read for anyone already familiar with RWS imagery, but would also be appropriate for beginners.
From Elves & Fairies by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite
Etchika Choureau, Halloween Witch, 1958
via Sexy Witch
