Every year, I choose to celebrate 2 new years. I feel there is a masculine way to celebrate and a feminine way, and they fall on two separate days!
Of course, everyone knows that Jan.1st, is a powerful time to set goals and make amends, it’s when the solar calendar starts over and we can get a fresh start (and discounted gym membership). But mainstream culture doesn’t always honor Haloween as the Witches’ New Years?
‘You mean there’s more than just remembering our ancestors, dressing up in costumes, and give candy to our neighbor kids?’
Indeed. In various celtic clans and pagan circles there is more to Halloween than trick or treating. This Wiccan 
Sabbat is called Samhain, and is celebrated by witches and warlocks at sundown on Oct. 31st. This day falls halfway between Fall equinox and the Winter Solstice, which marked the beginning of the darkest time of the year.
This time is particularly special because the veil that divides the world of spirit and the world of form grows thin, and it’s a very potent time to receive messages from beyond the gates of life and death. Traditionally, it’s a powerful time to connect with angels, ancestors, animal spirits and other allies. But if you don’t believe in life after death, it can still be a rich time to self reflect, meditate and do personal growth.
Personally, I take the opportunity to do ritual, honor the dead, and even re-write my credo. Since I am latina, I double down on the rituals and also celebrate Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead.)
In my backyard I set up an altar, and light candles and drink libations at the base of my lemon tree. I pick fresh fruit from the garden and make offerings of organic figs and pomegranate seeds. (If I were more of a cook, I might offer a whole meal.) Then
I arrange pictures of my Great Grandmother Mamma Clara who died after my Quinceañera, Mi abuelita Ester, the one who had 18 pregnancies, all home births, Daddy Larry the great storyteller, and a number of my mentors and teachers including my dearly departed friend Shekeinah.
And with the thinning of the veils, I dance, pray, chant, bestow blessings and listen. I listen a lot. I also make confessions, and ask how I can be of better service to the living, and then listen some more.
Samhain is not just a celebration life, death, and the entire cycle, but a time to align with our soul’s purpose. This is why I take the time to re-write my credo. I’ve been doing these practice for decades and find them tremendously valuable.
If you’ve never written your credo, I encourage you to start simple, It can be a few sentences or a 10 page essay…Just write about what’s important to you?
For example, this is a paragraph from my morning pages about my Credo:
“My ecclectic rituals draw from a wide range of wisdom traditions including Hinduism, Catholicism, Paganism, Kabbalah, weaving everything into an evolving tapestry of Tantric Shamanism. Nature is my cathedral. I’m not categorically opposed to cults or religions, but my guru is my soul. The soul has a dual quality of being completely individual as well as absolutely indivisible from the entire web o
f life. My mission is to awaken myself and others to the embodied experience of their soul’s purpose.”
So, What is your soul’s purpose? What’s your credo?
I hope this inspires you to add more soul to your Sahain celebaration!
Happy Witches New Years,
KD
P.S. If you’re local, I hope you’ll join me for my big glorious 2 Book Release Party on Dec. 18th, If you’re an international traveler, please consider joining me for my Pilgrimmage to Israel on Nov. 27th, 2016.
