Earth

Its the 44th week of the year - 4 is a structural number and 4+4 = 8 - a completion number. This is the week that we celebrate the ‘New Year’ - acknowledging that all things begin in the darkness

Dark Moon

Samhain ‘Summers End’ ~ the third and final harvest ~ Celtic New Year

Stepping over the threshold into the darkest portal of the year. In the way of the priestess we recognise the power of the shadow and the quest to integrate it. To deny our own or others ability to reincarnate or resurrect creates stagnation on our souls journey home. We honour the great mother and her wise intelligence in offering a time of darkness, decay and replenishment

Hallowed and Holy - what does Holy mean? Sacred

late Middle English: past participle of archaic sacre ‘consecrate’, from Old French sacrer, from Latin sacrare, from sacer, sacr- ‘holy’.

SAMHAIN ANCHORING

Lunar Samhaim 1st November (Dark Moon Scorpio)

Greater Sabbat Fire Festival

Cross Quarter Festival ~ Cross Quarter between Autumn Equinox & Winter Solstice

All Hallows Eve 31st October

Souls Day 1st November

Old Hallows Eve 11th November

Solar Samhain when the sun reaches 15 degrees Scorpio

Polar opposite on the wheel of the year to Beltane ~ the fertility festival

ALTAR

Scorpio Season ~ flowing into darkness - this season initiates the darkest phase of the year. Ruled by Pluto - a totem of destruction and transformation. You may choose to have a simple altar with a candle illuminating the darkness, or to specifically create a spacious altar with only a couple of elements. Perhaps creating a simple circle and a void. Honouring the ancestors (of all ancient beings) and the rich harvest

ARCHETYPAL

Scorpio is the Queen of Death. She can pierce the darkness and reveal hidden depths of clarity and gnosis. She provides a shamanic death of self that unites the soul ever deeper. Scorpio is a passionate fixed water sign that allows us to tap into our vulnerability and watery realms. This is the time of year to really lean into grief and release the heaviness from our hearts ~ to allow the souls to flow on the rivers of our tears

GLYPH

Scorpio

The glyph is an M with a pointy dragon tail on the end

The flow and the sting ~ look at the glyph that belies an open parallel water doorway if you choose to enter past the fear of being annihilated. Death of the old is a doorway to rebirth

ALCHEMY

The deep dark scrying waters of Scorpionic fervour - fixed water that must be met = Alchemical Change

SYMBOL

The Ouroboros dragon serpent that devours itself ~ an infinite cycle ~ the circle

GODDESSES

(A limited list of some goddesses that you may wish to connect to)

Black Madonna ~ Medieval Europe

Ereshkigal ~ Mesopotamian

Hecate ~ Greek

Hel ‘Hell’ ~ Norse (the uterine cave within the deep earth)

Inanna ~ Sumerian

Morrigan ~ Celtic

Persephone ~ Greek

Sedna ~ Intuit

Sheila Na Gig ~ Celtic

The Crone (Crowned One) whose wisdom blood had been contained within was corrupted into the Hag (hagard) ~ in the Celtic understanding all souls return to the great cauldron of regeneration to be reborn - stirred into being by the wise Crone

PLANT CONSCIOUSNESS

The blackthorn gives us powerful medicine with its strong black thorns ~ piercing the poison. Lady Blackthorn will support your spirit if you ask her

Lean on the ally of Motherwort for courage and bravery to support you to create space around your inner sanctum. To ask and to give yourself what you need. To have lionspride and and open courageous heart

Fly Agaric ~ the veiled red priestess of the woods has arisen. Have you connected with her secrets? As you ponder Brooms and Witches. Consider the ‘flying ointments’ that were used by wise women to traverse the veils. To leave you with a fantastical Scorpionic (ruler of sex and death) vision - an ointment can be applied to the ‘shaft’ (masculine phallus) of the broom, and / or to ones root, and ridden for oracular ‘seering’ vision!

JOURNAL

Can you allow what you most fear to be transformed. Can you willingly walk down into the darkest place to meet yourself in wholeness to be transformed. Do you dare to be your own medicine? What seeds are being planted in the darkness and need to be incubated for some time until the earths signals create the perfect alignment for their birth. All of life is a slow unfolding of aligned actions - rather than a staccato of peak moments - how can you take steady action towards that which you seek? Turning and Returning

What are you holding onto - what needs to be released to allow space? Is there a physical holding on to clutter or old things for fear of loss which is actually heavy and stagnating - create a void to allow it to be transformed

Pay attention to the dreamscape when the veils are thin - revelations and insights can particularly abound between layers of sleep and awake. Spend more time connecting to the dreamtime during the darkest phase until winter solstice

INCANTATION

“I can trust the journey into the unknown that beckons me forward”

EMBODIMENT RITUAL

Take a dark and comfortable space and drop into the womb tomb ~ drop out of thoughts and relinquish control down into the root of your being. Be here with no agenda. Notice what arises. Give gratitude for this connection. Continue to practice over the next 6 weeks in the darkest days

Release the impulse to push down what needs to be released. Choose where this vulnerability can be felt, heard and moved through. The greatest darkness holds the greatest light

Our blood power is deeply feared. Whether we meet this power subjugated in first blood or in childbirth - the Queen of death supports us to devour the old blood. The old stories and patterns are composted to create fertile ground for us to lay new ways of being. We can not banish what we fear to meet - we have to honour its wholeness and our wholeness. Cast your circle of self

MIRROR WORK

Using the reflective pool of the mirror to discern truth. Is the mirror clear and clean for reflection? As we ‘see’ in the darkness our inner consciousness expands along with our intuitive sense

OFFERINGS

Imbibing sacred sacrament with your ancestors

Offerings to the ancestors and spirits of place (the origins of trick or treat)

A plate of food at the table for the ancestors

All Souls Cakes - spicy biscuits to feed the hungry ghosts - ‘Souling’ was an ancient practice of offering prayers for the deceased in exchange for food

Jack O Lanterns (originates in candles lighting the way for souls)

Apples ~ the sacred five pointed star honouring all the elements of life can be found (bobbling for apples)

INVOCATION

‘I envelop my dream seeds in darkness to allow their bright lights to strengthen and renew in the continuation of life’

WELLSPRING

Build a well of compassion for yourself and others as you navigate the intensity of the Scorpio depths. Fixed water wants to support your evolution. Convene at the sacred springs and wells to do magic and release trapped souls

Dark Moon Scorpio

In the wheel of the priestess Scorpio represents the Queen of Death

The Queen who can journey to the quiet solitude to the underworld

A place where in the quietude she unravels into the soft dark earth, weaving her dream prayers into being and reweaving herself anew

Scorpio represents the aspect of ourselves that does not fear the darkness, the mystery or not knowing

In fact it speaks to seership, to gnosis and sight beyond seeing

In the darkness, the solitude and the silence we are gifted with clear vision ~ our third eye is activated and we can be deeply discerning

Scorpio has a bit of a reputation for being a stinger, and yet with that sting there can be such powerful truth telling, such embodied activation, such clarity

Do you feel resourced and ready for the winter? How will you support your inward journey to allow there to be gestational dreaming and ‘dark’ magic. Here is the place which we have been taught to fear. Been made to demonise. Be sure that you unveil what has been hidden. This is the alchemy. Of Poison to Power.

Wishing you so many blessings on the path as we begin the winter descent. Remembering our sisters in the Southern hemisphere who are holding the light for us. Remembering the great mother in her wisdom as she travels into fertility on the other side of the world as this side travels into the death portal

Remember sisters