I am the hallow-tide of all souls passing,
I am the bright releaser of all pain,
I am the quickener of the fallen seed-case,
I am the glance of snow, the strike of rain.
I am the hollow of the winter twilight,
I am the hearth-fire and the welcome bread,
I am the curtained awning of the pillow,
I am unending wisdom’s golden thread.
by Caitlín Matthews, from Song of Samhain, Celtic Devotional: Daily Prayers and Blessings
We have come to another turning of the Great Round, and the Celtic year’s end is now upon us. On this day, we stand at the gateway between the old, which is utterly and forever gone and the new, which has not fully arrived.
It is now that our beloved dead are remembered. Here the veil thins and Mystery comes upon us, ready or not.
There is so little in our Western secular culture that even remotely prepares us for the irrevocable powers of Life, Death, and cthonic transformation, as they overturn the haute couture masks, plastic pumpkins, pointy hats, and chocolate bars.
That superficiality is being relentlessly exposed in all its corruption and failure, and nothing will ever be the same, no matter how much Wall Street and Washington might wish for it to be.
We would do well to learn from the wisdom of other cultures, who take this threshold time to honor and celebrate their Ancestors.
For once again, we are entering the dark half of the year. What if you, at least momentarily, stepped away from the artifice of our culture, and listened to the whispers of your forebears? For there are treasures in this liminal time, bittersweet as they may sometimes be.
What is Samhain?
The Great Sabbat of Samhain (pronounced SAH-wen, SAH-ween, or SOW (rhymes with cow) -wen) is the third and final harvest, marking Summer’s end.
It is the celebration of the New Year in both the old Celtic calendar and also in many traditions of the Craft. In the Northern Hemisphere, this marks the midpoint between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice (although by strict astronomical reckoning that falls on Nov. 6 this year (in most time zones).
Samhain is the opposite point of the year from the celebrations of life and fertility of May Day, or Beltane, which our friends below the equator are celebrating today.
A most merry Beltane to all our dear friends in the Southern Hemisphere!
A Witch’s View of Human Nature
As most educated people know, neither Witches nor Samhain have anything whatsoever to do with “satan,” who is strictly a Christian invention. While our stories have plenty of tricksters and even a few nasty villains, there is no entity of supernatural evil in the beliefs or practices of Witchcraft or Paganism.
Note: As I have written in past years, it would be naive and wrong to say that baleful use of the natural magic and energies of the Earth never occurs. For instance, we know for a fact that many of the despicable and dangerous people who are seeking power this year, and aim to overthrow our democracy in America, are knowingly employing malefic magical practices, including the wicked powers that were adopted by Hitler's Nazis, and must be taken seriously in their intentions. They do not identify as, nor would they be recognized as, Witches.
More tellingly, most Witches and Pagans do not believe in the myth of fundamental wrongness being at the heart of the world, or human nature.
We especially reject the notion of “original sin” and the subsequent eternal punishment of all humanity, or that the “fall” was caused by the inherent wickedness of Woman.
For millennia, Western civilization has been haunted and manipulated by the terror that a taint of evil lurks in even the most innocent of us.
Sadly, the fallout from this is that most people are alienated from, and deeply afraid of, the natural cycles of living, aging, and dying. And yet a morbid fascination with violence, death, and horror are central to popular entertainment pastimes.
For our ancestors, as well as in cultures not dominated by the Abrahamic religions, when you eliminate the fear that there is a stain of evil or accursedness dwelling within every single one of us (mediated only by the Church), then you have a very different relationship to the fact of death, as well as the Earth Herself.
Death may bring deep grief to those left behind, but it is not the grotesque horror that we have turned it into, in our modern, “enlightened” times.
On the contrary, we sense that the boundary that lies between the living and the departed, and between what is past, present, and future has become thin.
This is not a spooky, terrifying thing to us. Consensual reality shifts, and other dimensions are revealed, enabling us to welcome and commune with our beloved dead, as well as our Otherworldly guides and contacts.
Origins
Halloween and All Saints Day have their origin in the ancient Celtic feast of Samhain. The All Saints ceremonies had originally been in the Springtime, but the Catholic church, in an attempt to stamp out the Pagan rites of Samhain, superimposed it to that time.
We do not, in fact, really know what went on at those most ancient rites, as the wise Ronald Hutton reminds us.
In the modern Gaelic languages, the name of the feast means “summer’s end.” In the modern Brythonic languages, it means “the first day of winter.” It is the end of the end, the beginning of the beginning. The Celts honored the intertwining forces of existence: darkness and light, night and day, cold and heat, death and life.
Celtic knotwork art represents this intertwining. The old ones observed time as proceeding from darkness to light. Thus, the Celtic day began at dusk, the beginning of the dark and cold night, and ended the following dusk, the end of a day of light and warmth.
Similarly, the Celtic year began with An Geamhradh (“an gyow-ragh”), the dark Celtic winter, and ended with Am Foghar (“am fu-ghar”), the Celtic harvest. So Samhain marks the beginning of both An Geamhradh and the new Celtic year.
Throughout history and across cultures, this is a time for making peace with one another, and with the inevitability of death.
This would have been the third and final harvest of the growing season, with Lughnasadh (Aug. 1) being the first harvest of grains and Mabon (Equinox) being the final harvest of fruits and vegetables. Samhain marked the blood harvest of cattle, pigs, and other animals that had to be culled in order to survive the encroaching Winter.
Thus, stories with a theme of the death and the transformation cycle, as well as rituals honoring and welcoming the spirits of our beloved dead Ancestors are central to our rites.
Our Magical Legacy
While the revelry of Halloween can be fun, it is not Pagan. Instead, Halloween is a commercialized, secular event. It is amusing that some conservative churches are trying to “clean up” what they fear is the Pagan influence of this night by having “Fall Harvest Festivals,” since that is actually much closer to the Pagan observances.
This night is our most holy, reflective, and deeply sacred time.
So to my friends who love to party, dress up, and carouse on this night, enjoy. And perhaps you might reserve the astronomical cross-quarter date as your spiritual celebration.
Either way, we’ll be bidding welcome to our beloved departed ones by freshening their resting places if nearby, decorating our altars in their honor, preparing their favorite foods, perhaps hosting a dumb supper, and lighting candles to show them the way.
We review the old year’s triumphs and shortcomings, and we may burn symbols or actual items in our bonfires representing that which we wish to release for good.
The Start of the Wild Hunt
This is a time of great power, when we may seek wisdom through divination and sacred contact with the Otherworlds.
It is a time to contemplate our own ephemeral existence in this Middle World of life, and to accept with grace our place in the Spiral Dance of life and death.
Our predecessors took Samhain quite seriously. Any crops not harvested by this day were known to belong to the “Shrouded One” and left alone.

Ancestors not honored at this time could be expected to plague the living with ill luck. Thus, tonight is an important time to set a place at the table for your beloved dead, and give offerings to those who have crossed over to the Summerlands.
The most fierce Faery races, led by the Lord of the Faery, Finvara, King of the Dead, ride forth, beginning on this night, with the hosts of the dead, sweeping up all the souls of those who have died within the past year.
Commonly known as The Wild Hunt, this fabled activity continues until Yule, so beware of dark, lonely places in the night, lest you be taken by mistake.
We Honor the Crone
On this sabbat, in addition to giving our honor to the Gods of the Wild Hunt and Gatherers of Souls, like Gwyn ap Nudd, we offer our devotion to the Divine Feminine in Her form as the Underworld Goddess and the Old One, including the Morrighan, Demeter, Hel, and Orchil.
This year, as we observe the cresting tide of fascism with its emphasis on misogynist, racist, authoritarian cruelty, I implore each one of you reading this to call upon your Wisest Ones, They who guard wisdom, justice, and democracy. They might include the Goddesses Columbia, Justitia, Libertas, and Athena.
And by all that is holy and good, I beg you to VOTE (and urge your friends to as well).
And on this day especially, since the last day of the month is always sacred to Her, let us call upon mighty Hecate, who advocates for the downtrodden and marginalized, on behalf of mothers and children, and is our own Goddess of the Witches.
The Burning Times
In addition, on this day, we remember all those men, women, and children who have been burned, hanged, imprisoned, beaten, drowned, tortured, starved, and murdered as Witches.
The Witch hunts during The Inquisition and European wars of religion peaked between about 1580 and 1630, but there were over three centuries of terror, with an estimated total of 40,000–100,000 people executed. Mostly women.
But let’s be clear.
Witchcraft continues to be misunderstood and persecuted across the globe today. In some countries, including so-called “modern” ones, suspected Witches are still routinely put to public and torturous death. Alas, those persecutions are on the rise again, for when fear and ignorance tip into the extreme, scapegoats become targets.
As Project 2025 and the MAGA manipulators seek to create an authoritarian theocracy, we Pagans and Witches have a lot to be concerned about.
Thus, we will continue to strive for justice and understanding for all in danger. And we vow:
Never again the burnings! And hangings. And drownings. And torture.

The Wall of Remembrance in Salem, Massachusetts
Dates of Execution from America’s REAL Witchhunt –
(And, frankly, screw those who have recently tried to trivialize this term for their self-pity and ego!)
I invite you to remember them aloud in your rites on this holy day:
- Bridget Bishop (June 10, 1692)
- Rebecca Nurse (July 19, 1692)
- Sarah Good (July 19, 1692)
- Elizabeth Howe (July 19, 1692)
- Susannah Martin (July 19, 1692)
- Sarah Wildes (July 19, 1692)
- George Burroughs (August 19, 1692)
- George Jacobs Sr. (August 19, 1692)
- Martha Carrier (August 19, 1692)
- John Proctor (August 19, 1692)
- John Willard (August 19, 1692)
- Martha Corey (September 22, 1692; wife of Giles Corey)
- Mary Eastey (September 22, 1692)
- Mary Parker (September 22, 1692)
- Alice Parker (September 22, 1692)
- Ann Pudeator (September 22, 1692)
- Wilmot Redd (September 22, 1692)
- Margaret Scott (September 22, 1692)
- Samuel Wardwell Sr. (September 22, 1692)
- Giles Corey (September 19, 1692) – Pressed to death, the only such execution on record in America. Last words, “More weight!”
Died in prison
- Ann Foster — convicted and died in custody in December 1692
- Mercy, infant daughter of Sarah Good
- Sarah Osborne— died in prison (May 10, 1692) before she could be tried
- Roger Toothaker – died before trial (June 16, 1692) probably due to torture or maltreatment
- Lydia Dustin – found not guilty but died in custody
Convicted but escaped:
- Mary Bradbury
A Few of the Beloved Dead of 2024
This year, a number of actual Witches, Pagans, and other non-traditional magical people crossed the veil. My thanks to Rebecca Crystal of the Church of All Worlds (C.A.W.) who tracks these each year. These are a few of our luminaries. We take a moment to thank them and wish them blessed journeys:
- Arthur Goheen, 12/10/1938 – 1/13/2024: Church of All Worlds; founder Friends of Annwfn.
- Diane Darling, 5/19/1951 – 1/23/2024: Edited Green Egg 1988-1994; editor PanGaia and Green Man. In triad marriage with Morning Glory and Oberon 1982-1994, she was a major figure in the early polyamory movement, and later LSD psychonaut. An ordained Priestess of the Fellowship of Isis, she called herself a “Buddheo-Pagan.”
- Ed Fitch (Ed Sitch), 4/29/1937 – 2/24/2024: Initiated Gardnerian by Ray Buckland. One of the creators of “The Pagan Way;” an editor of The Waxing Moon magazine founded by Joseph B. Nilson in 1964, later renamed The Crystal Well.
- Don Wildgrube, 7/20/1938 – 4/8/2024: One of the earliest and most devoted CAW members in St Louis, with whole family in the late 1960s. Hosted West Nest meetings.
- Francis Andrew Dalton III, 7/27/1954 – 4/14/2024: Organizer of CraftWise, a Pagan conference (1995-1999), Water Steward, Brushwood Folklore Center (23 years), beloved Husband and High Priest. Friends recall that Frank was a compassionate, gentle, sweet soul with a core of steel.
- Brian A “Trebleheart” Morse, 5/7/1961 – 5/8/2024 Known for his soulful playing, leading rituals, readings, guided meditations, and his generous spirit. Always sharing his wisdom and light with others.
- MaryAnn Wilson, 1/26/1952 – 6/3/2024: Artist, a musician (mandolin, as well as vocals, guitar, and bodhran), and lover of all things vintage. She never failed to speak up against injustice and devoted her considerable talents and great heart to making the world a better place for everyone regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual identity.
- Lady Marybeth “Pythia” Witt, 4/2/1952 – 6/22/2024: Co-founded the Coven of the Floating Spiral in 1975 with Peregrine and Thaelia as a “Witchmage” tradition that follows an eclectic path. In 1985, Lady Pythia co-founded the Ohio Local Council of the Covenant of the Goddess. In 1989, she took over as 2nd officer and organized the 1989 Grand Council and Merry Meet held in Circle Pines, Michigan. She is remembered as a poet, a jeweler, an excellent astrologer, and psychic.
- Ruthann Amarteifio, (Lady Ruthann), 5/22/48 – 7/16/2024: Dedicated Pagan leader, teacher, and elder, including Arch Priestess of the New Aeon Church International and the New Aeon Tradition of Wicca (formerly the Correllian Nativist Tradition, Vice President of the Board of Directors, and Head of the Orders of Gaia, Daughters of the Goddess, Hearth Keepers, and Earth Walkers. She was the founder and Chief Priestess of Akasha Temple in Illinois and Arch Priestess of the Temple of Astral Light in New York. She was a member of many pagan organizations, including the Fellowship of Isis, Chrysalis Ministries, Earthwise Gyre.
- Rhiannon Renee Rock, 10/3/1959- 8/2/2024: Proprietess at Riding in Love, owner at Moon Struck Magick, Crystal Sound Healing Artist, dedicated to the Consciousness Evolution of the Planet.
- Dagonet “Dag” Dewr (secular name, Duke Anthony Egbert), 2/28/1968 – 5/1/2024: Co–founder of the Pagan Pride Project and served as both Membership Coordinator and Executive Director. Dag contributed to men’s emotional development as a 29-time event staffer and an elder in the ManKind Project. Helped edit newWitch magazine (2001-2006) and authored Sacred Paths for Modern Men in 2007.
And finally, and most dear to my own heart, as well as to all who attended SpiralHeart Witchcamp during the Buffalo Gap, WV years:
- Kathie Conn (magical name Ayramaia). 5/10/1955 – 4/24/2024:
Kathie was a beloved member of the Camp Ops group for many years at Buffalo Gap, keeping everything running smoothly and handling every kind of situation with grace and creativity.She founded the first Death Cafe in Northern Virginia and in addition to being a Feri/Reclaiming Witch, she was devoted to Mary Magdalene. Her humor, enthusiasm for life, and love of the beauty in all things made her a cherished friend to me and countless others.
May they rest in power. Hail the travelers.
Gone and Lost Forever
In addition, we grieve for the waves of extinction now catapulting our biosphere into ruin.
According to a report updated just this month, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, is sounding the alarms regarding the mass extinction event underway across our planet.
WWF’s 2024 Living Planet Report details an average 73% decline in wildlife populations since 1970.
The report warns that, as the Earth approaches dangerous tipping points posing grave threats to humanity, a huge collective effort will be required over the next five years to tackle the dual climate and nature crises.
Which reminds me that I would be remiss not to mention the countless numbers of humans and wildlife that have perished, or whose lives have been shattered, due to disasters triggered by the climate apocalypse now underway. Heavy on my own heart this year are our friends and neighbors in Western North Carolina.
Who might you add to this list of the Beloved Dead?
Light a candle to guide your cherished ones that they may join you this night. Speak their names, and tell them of your life since you last met. Offer them refreshment. And give thanks to your Ancestors, who saw you in their dreams.
Weaver, weaver weave their thread
Whole and strong into your web;
Healer, healer, heal their pain,
In love may they return again.
We merry meet.
And merry part.
And merry meet again.
What is remembered lives.
Blessed be.

Comments on this entry are closed.
Dear Beth, this was just BEAUTIFUL! Thank you for sharing your wisdom on this special day. My recently departed loved ones, especially my Mother and Mother-in-law have been visiting me all week and I will honor them today. I have recently come through a health crisis and feel both like a new person and my old self. I truly appreciate the time you take to share your wisdom with all of us. I voted yesterday and look forward to a new chapter for our country-one where each one of us is respected and valued for our uniqueness. Sending Love and Light to All…
May this new chapter unfold in beautiful, kind ways for you, dear Gail. Blessed Samhain.
Happiest Samhain Lady Beth. Beautiful blog as always. Given these trying times with so much uncertainty in this world I was especially looking forward to seeing and talking with my ancestors. The wheel turns and may the new moon along with Pluto entering Aquarius may all of us enter a dawning of new light and renewal 💕🐈⬛
As you have said it, so may it be, dearest Marguerite. May we all have a blessed New Year as so many endings and beginnings are upon us. 💙✨🙏🏻
thank you. and many blessings.
And blessings to you, Kathleen. May your rites be as beautiful as you are.
Dear Beth
Thank you always for this most special newsletter. This may sound strange, but I look forward to this newsletter each year. One because it reminds me that life is ever spiraling upwards. My ancestor is one who has a marker on the wall of remembrance in Salem. But most in my family try to tell me he is not related. I smile and let them believe as they wish. Once awhile ago I found an old book with information about John Willard. His death probably had to do with money, property and family dynamics as he was seen as illegitimate (a lie ). This day will be a somber one for me. Mostly because of heartache. But having dear ones like you and others to hold hands across the miles during this time, helps. So grateful. Love and peace to all during this sacred time.
May all your Ancestors continue to bless you for your remembrances. And may heartaches find gentle healing and solace in this beautiful, liminal time. Blessed Samhain dear Beth.
I love reading your insightfulness. We chatted about a possible reading in Decembe. Love to hear from u. Happy samhain.prayers for Kamala
blessed samhain to you, beth. this is a very potent one, i feel, especially looking at the astrology going on around it. may our little lights lit this night shine together and bring us back to sanity and justice. may our ancestors join us in power for good.
As you have said it, so mote it be, in the most mighty, clear ways. Blessings, my friend.
What a powerful essay! I am with you, heart and soul.
Thanks! And thanks for your amazing email, which I will reply to at some point soon! Samhain blessings!
What is the word that starts with a “C” … transformation, in the following:
There is so little in our Western secular culture that even remotely prepares us for the irrevocable powers of Life, Death, and cthonic transformation, as they overturn the haute couture masks, plastic pumpkins, pointy hats, and chocolate bars.
Thank you so much for being here and online. A Blessed Samhain to you and yours!
Thanks for asking! It’s such a great word! The c is not pronounced so it is “thon’ ik.”
The American Heritage Dictionary says:
“1. Of or relating to the underworld.
2. Pertaining to the earth; earthy. Ex: “cthonic religions”
3. Dwelling within or under the earth.
🙂