The ancient festival of Samhain marked the last day of the Celtic year, with the rising of the sun on the following morning illuminating the New Year and the turning of the wheel. Samhain was a crucial time of year, loaded with symbolic significance for the pre-Christian Celts. As they watched the sun descend into the western skies, the symbolic inference was that of a descent into the Otherworld. This marked the thinning of the veil, as those within the Otherworld were free to roam the Earth. The Sidhe, (faeries as we know them, for we know so little of them) have the power of shapeshifting and were deemed able to walk among us, unknown and unrecognisable to mortals. Alongside them travel our ancestors and other spirits we fail to recognise. It is a night filled with magic!
– C. O'Neill
Hallowtide Reflections – The Wild Reed (October 31, 2020).
See also the previous posts:
• In the Image of the Horned God
• I Call to Cernunnos . . .
Images: Artists unknown except for images 11 and 15 which are by St. Jinx.
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