Happy New Year, everyone!
Samhain, like any New Year celebration, is a time for letting go of the old and welcoming in the new. Because we have a waning moon this year, you may have the best results if you focus on the letting go.
Today is an excellent day for house cleansing. Our family always sweeps out the old (widdershins/counter-clockwise) with last year's cinnamon broom and burns it in the Samhain fire. Then we bless the new cinnamon broom over the fire and sweep in (deosil/clockwise) prosperity and protection for the new year. Our broom hangs on the door we use most so the house and the person get a little sweep any time the door is used.
Of course, on this between day, this day outside the year, this thin veil day, we remember our beloved dead. Now is the perfect time for mediumship and any ancestor work.
Entities you may wish to honor or approach today include (but are not limited to) Kali, Odin, Hecate, Hades, Persephone, Hermes, Pan, Morrigan, Cernunnos, Herne, Baron Samedi, Mamman Brigitte, Santa Muerte, Baba Yaga, and Chernobog.
While any work can benefit from the liminality and extra energetic oomph of Samhain, falling on a Tuesday brings in martial energies. Workings related to justice, cutting to the truth, and separating the wheat from the chaff are particularly favored today. You may wish to bring in the Queen and/or King of Swords for this. Kali, Odin*, Morrigan, Herne, Hecate, and Santa Muerte particularly resonate with this theme. (*I enumerate Odin rather than Tew because Odin has associations with Samhain by way of The Wild Hunt but you are, of course, welcome to working with Tew if so inclined.)
Now is an excellent time to make preparations for winter in the home and garden, such as pruning, turning the compost, canning, washing linens and laundry, airing out the house, decluttering, and general tidying up. Just remember to leave plenty of leaf litter and dead flower stalks in the garden for our Insect Friends!
Similarly, especially because our waning moon is in Gemini, now is an excellent time for decluttering the mind and preparing for the turning inward that happens in winter. The darkest half of the year may lead us to meet the darkest parts of ourselves (and even our loved ones, as we may be spending more time in close quarters with them). If you can start easing yourself gently into the inward spiral of the labyrinth now, you may have an easier time of it on the way to the Solstice. Meditation and introspection to identify where you and your relationships could improve are helpful ways to begin this journey.
You may wish to incorporate the Death card into your workongs today, both for the association with literal Death and for the figurative death and rebirth it symbolizes. Similarly, The Tower is associated with endongs and may be advisable if something in your life needs to be utterly destroyed and banished. If a gentler energy is called for, The Wheel of Fortune reminds us that everything is transitory and that what looks like and endlessly repeating circle may in fact be a spiral of growth. The Lovers may also be a useful card to incorporate today. It has associations with Gemini (where the Moon is today) and is the card of self-knowledge, of aligning our sub-, self-, and super-consciousness. The Moon may also be a useful inclusion for its associations withuncovering the truth, both within and without.
If, like me, you work with the 40 Servants, similar cards apply, such as The Dead and The Moon. The Messenger could be called upon for moving between worlds. Sharing it's corvid symbolism is The Protector, who may be a good ally for this time of the thin veil. The Gate Keeper could also be called upon to help manage the gate between worlds. The Balancer seems to me to resonate with this liminal time, as well. The Fixer, The Protester, or The Depleted could aid you if you plan to do martial or justice work. The Seer or The Witch could be good allies if you engage in divination or spellwork, respectively. And, of course, now is the tome of year when we celebrate The 40 Servants' birthday! So you may wish to do something to honor the whole crew! (And check our the birthday sale Tommie Kelly / Adventures in Woo Woo is running!)
