¡Blessed Samhain! : The Final Harvest of Unveiled Ancestor Work

 

¡Blessed Samhain! 

We gather at the precipice at the greatest Sabbat in the Wheel of the Year. Samhain {pronounced Sow-wen} arrives on the eve of October 31st at nightfall, marking the end of summer’s light and beginning our descent into the darkness of winter and the underworld. Samhain is the last harvest and the pagan Magical New Year, a sacred pause when the natural calendar resets, the flow of time becomes more viscous, and when the veils between dimensions grow so thin as to be permeable.

This is not a time for fear, but for profound spiritual opportunity. It is a moment to honor the great cycle of death and rebirth, to communicate with our ancestors, and to release the energetic residue of the passed year.

This year, on Samhain eve itself, the Waxing Gibbous moon will be building its light, growing in luminous power as it moves toward the Super Beaver Moon in Taurus on November 5th.  

Thinning Veils : The Physics of a Permeable Reality

Panpsychism proposes that consciousness is not something that emerges from complex matter (like a brain), but rather that it is an intrinsic property of matter itself, all the way down to the subatomic level. Physics tells us what an electron does, its behavior and relational properties, but it remains silent on what an electron is in and of itself. Panpsychism posits that this intrinsic nature is a rudimentary form of experience or consciousness. 

If we accept this, then the entire universe is a vast ocean of consciousness. Our human minds, in this view, are not generators of consciousness but rather receivers, or biological filters, designed by evolution to tune into a very specific and narrow bandwidth of reality – the one most necessary for our survival in four-dimensional spacetime. The ‘veil,’ then, is not an external barrier between worlds, but the very mechanism of our own perception – the brain’s ‘reducing valve’ that filters out the overwhelming totality of this universal consciousness.  

So, what could cause this filter to become more permeable? Here, we can look to the strange and wonderful world of quantum physics.

• Quantum Entanglement and Non-Locality: At the quantum level, particles can become entangled, remaining connected and instantaneously influencing each other no matter how vast the distance separating them. This reality-defying phenomenon suggests that, at a fundamental level, all things may be part of an unbroken, interconnected whole. The ‘thinning of the veil’ could be a time when our own consciousness becomes more attuned to this fundamental entanglement. The consciousness of our ancestors is not in a distant ‘place,’ but is a resonant pattern within this universal, entangled field. When the veil thins, we are not reaching out, but becoming more aware of the interconnectedness that is always there.  
• Dimensional Fluctuations: Some theories propose that consciousness is tied to dimensional awareness. Our reality is not limited to the three dimensions of space and one of time that we perceive. The ‘thinning’ could be a periodic fluctuation, practice, or alignment that makes other dimensions- and the consciousness patterns within them – more accessible to our own. The spirits of the departed, from this perspective, exist as standing waves of consciousness in a dimension that briefly overlaps more closely with our own.  

The Psycho-Seasonal Rhythm 

The reason this phenomenon is so consistently tied to this time of year across spiritual histories is rooted in our own biology and our planet’s cycles. Our ancestors in the Northern Hemisphere experienced the transition from autumn to winter as a profound and dangerous shift. The dying of the light, the coming of the cold, and the reliance on stored harvests created a deep psychological and physiological imprint related to death, survival, and the unseen forces of nature.  

This is not just folklore; it is corporeal science. The decrease in sunlight directly affects our brain chemistry, altering neurotransmitter levels in ways that can lead to conditions like Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). This biochemical shift changes our internal filter of perception. Our brain states literally shift, making us more naturally receptive to trance, intuition, and what we might call ‘otherworldly’ phenomena. Our very bodies are biologically primed by the season to become more permeable to knowledge from other sources to aid in our survival – sacred strategy. 

A Universal Human Experience

This deep, somatic response to the dying of the light is why so many cultures, independent of one another, created sacred traditions at this time of year that share profound similarities of this collective, archetypal experience.

• In Mexico, Día de los Muertos {Oct 31–Nov 2} is a vibrant celebration where families build ofrendas {altars} to welcome the spirits of their ancestors back for a brief reunion.  
• In Korea, Chuseok is a major harvest festival where families honor their ancestors with rituals and visit their graves.  
• In Cambodia, Pchum Ben is a 15-day religious holiday where it is believed that the spirits of ancestors come to visit the living.  
• In India, Diwali, the festival of lights, includes the remembrance of ancestors.  

These are not isolated coincidences. They are distinct cultural expressions of a universal animist truth felt in the body and echoed by the land itself. At this great turning of the Wheel of the Year, the boundary between the physical world and the spirit realm becomes more permeable, not because the spirits are traveling from a faraway land, but because the season changes us. Our own perceptual filters thin, and we become more capable of sensing the infinite, conscious, and interconnected universe that is, and has always been, right here with us.

Corporeal Communion :: Tending the Wounds of Our Lineage

This Samhain, we reframe our ancestor work as a trauma-informed practice, honoring the wisdom that resulted in our existence while consciously winnowing the grain from the chaff / stalk and keeping the healthy seeds we wish to propagate and sustain us through the winter and beyond . When venerating those who have passed out of physicality; we honor the wisdom of our lineages without blindly enacting unexamined patterns. As epigenetic studies show, even if we have not experienced a trauma directly, this wisdom is passed down in our genetic code. 

Epigenetics provides a physical framework for understanding how the experiences, traumas, and environments of our ancestors can leave molecular imprints upon our own biology, influencing the expression of our genes without changing the DNA code itself.  

These are not just stories we carry; they are somatic inheritances. Below are summaries of two powerful studies which provide some of the clearest evidence for this phenomenon.

The Somatic Memory of Famine: The Dutch Hunger Winter

During the final year of World War II, a German blockade plunged the western Netherlands into a severe famine from late 1944 to the spring of 1945. This tragic event, known as the Dutch Hunger Winter, created a ‘natural experiment’ for scientists to study the long-term effects of malnutrition.  

Decades later, researchers studied the health of individuals who were in utero during the famine and compared them to their unexposed siblings. The findings were profound:

• Persistent Epigenetic Changes: Individuals who were exposed to the famine during early gestation had, six decades later, different patterns of DNA methylation – a key epigenetic marker that acts like a switch to turn genes on or off. Specifically, they showed less methylation on the IGF2 gene, a gene involved in growth and development. This epigenetic change was found to persist throughout their lives.  
• Long-Term Health Consequences: These epigenetic alterations were linked to a higher incidence of health problems in adulthood, including cardiovascular disease, obesity, and schizophrenia. More recent studies have even shown that this prenatal famine exposure led to a faster pace of biological aging in midlife, as measured by ‘epigenetic clocks’.  
• Transgenerational Inheritance: The effects did not stop with those who directly experienced the famine in the womb. Studies have shown that the grandchildren of women who were exposed to the famine also showed health effects, suggesting that the epigenetic imprints can be passed down through generations.  

This research provides powerful human evidence that a single period of intense environmental stress can leave a molecular scar that is passed down, shaping the health and lives of future generations.

The Echo of Fear: A Mouse’s Scented Legacy

In a landmark study, researchers Brian Dias and Kerry Ressler at Emory University provided compelling evidence of how a specific learned fear could be inherited in animals.  

• The Experiment: They trained male mice to fear the smell of acetophenone {a chemical that smells like cherry blossoms} by pairing the scent with mild electric shocks. These mice quickly learned to become fearful and startled whenever they smelled it.  
• Inherited Sensitivity: The truly astonishing finding was that the children {F1 generation} and even grandchildren {F2 generation} of these mice were born with a heightened sensitivity and fear response to that specific smell, despite never having been exposed to it themselves. They startled more in the presence of acetophenone compared to other odors.  
• Biological Changes: This inherited sensitivity was not just behavioral. The brains of the offspring were physically different; they had a larger neurological area in their olfactory bulbs dedicated to the receptors that detect acetophenone.  
• The Epigenetic Mechanism: The researchers proved this was not a socially learned behavior by using in-vitro fertilization and cross-fostering with unconditioned parents. They discovered the mechanism was epigenetic: they found that the DNA in the sperm of the original conditioned mice had altered methylation patterns on the specific gene that codes for the acetophenone odor receptor {Olfr151}. This epigenetic mark was passed through the germline to the offspring.  
• The Possibility of Healing: In a follow-up study, the researchers found that if they ‘extinguished’ the fear in the original parent mice by repeatedly exposing them to the scent without the shock, their offspring did not inherit the sensitivity.  

This study demonstrates that a very specific traumatic experience can be encoded and passed down biologically, shaping the nervous system and behavior of descendants. Crucially, it also suggests that healing this trauma in one generation can prevent its transmission to the next.

These scientific studies are beginning to describe, in the language of molecules and genes, the deep, animist truth that we are inextricably linked to our lineage. The traumas of our ancestors are not just stories of the past; they are living echoes within our own bodies, waiting to be heard, honored, and transformed into a healing harvest.

Ancestral Harvest Rituals + Releases

Our somatic inheritances are held within our nervous systems, and where we are invited to do that sacred work of creating a healing harvest from harm. We can listen to the wisdom of our bodies, our SomaSenZ, to connect with, receive wisdom from, and release these deep-seated survival patterns. The principles of Corporeal Consent – of listening deeply to both verbal and non-verbal cues – can be extended to our interactions with the spirit world. Our ancestors no longer speak to us with their physical voices, but our bodies, as the living vessels of their legacy, can become the receivers for their communication. During ritual, pay close attention to your somatic signals: a sudden prickling chill of gooseflesh, a feeling of tightness in your chest, a wave of unexplainable sadness, or a sense of profound peace may be the non-verbal language of the physically departed. By attuning to our own embodied and emotional state, we practice communication with our ancestors, transforming a one-way act of veneration into a two-way respectful dialogue.

 

Somatic Rituals for Ancestral Connection

 

• The Ancestor Altar as Embodied Memory: Create an altar not just with photographs, but with textures, scents, and objects that evoke a visceral, embodied memory of those who have passed. Include a grandmother’s knitted scarf, a grandfather’s worn book, soil / stone from their homeland, or their favorite flower. Make the altar a sensory portal that invites their presence through feeling, not just sight.
• The Silent Supper as Somatic Listening: The ancient tradition of the Silent Supper, a meal eaten in absolute silence, is a profound practice of somatic listening. Set a place at your table for the ancestors, serving them food and drink.  The silence is not an absence, but a deep, resonant quiet that allows you to feel beyond the noise of the cognitive mind. Use your SomaSenZ to listen for their presence. Notice subtle shifts in the air, the temperature, the emotional atmosphere of the room – this is how we commune with those who have no voice. 
• The Spirit Plate as Reciprocal Nourishment: After the silent meal, it is customary to offer the spirit plate to someone less fortunate or to leave it outside for the land and animal spirits. This beautiful act connects to the animist and ecological principle of the compost cycle. What is released is not lost; it is transformed and becomes nourishment for other life. This is an act of sacred reciprocity with both the seen and unseen worlds, ensuring the cycles of giving and receiving continue in balance.

 

Divining the Depths :: Scrying the Inner Underworld

 

With the Sun and Mars in watery Scorpio, this is a potent time for divination, not as a means of simple fortune-telling, but as a profound tool for psychological and spiritual introspection. This is a journey to meet our Shadow Self and access the wisdom of the unconscious. From an animist perspective, these divination methods are acts of co-regulation and communication with the non-human world. The water in the scrying bowl, the smoke from the herbs, the symbols encountered in the natural world – these are not inert tools but active participants in the conversation, agents of the biosphere offering their wisdom. When we scry, we are not just looking into water; we are asking the spirit of water for clarity. This reframes divination as an act of ecosystemic empathy and interspecies communication.

Animist & Esoteric Divination Practices

 

• Water & Mirror Scrying: In a quiet, candlelit room, fill a dark bowl with fresh water or gaze into a polished piece of obsidian or mirror. Relax your physical eyes, soften your focus, and allow your inner gaze to perceive the messages, symbols, feelings, or visions that arise from the depths.  This practice aligns beautifully with Scorpio’s watery, reflective nature, turning the reflective surface into a portal to your own inner underworld.
• Cauldron Smoke Divination {Pyromancy}: Light a charcoal disk in a cast-iron cauldron or other fire-safe vessel. Sprinkle it with sacred herbs like Mugwort to enhance divination and dreams, or shavings of a strong wood for protection. As the smoke rises, gaze into its swirling tendrils. Ask a question and watch how the smoke responds. Does it move clockwise or wildershins {counterclockwise}? Does it form shapes or symbols? This is a direct communion with the spirits of the plants and the element of air, carrying messages from beyond the veil. Alternatively, if fire too high risk, engage in a cryomancy Ephememorial practice which can honor a specific ancestor or can be in response to any transition of form. 
• The Wisdom of Apples : Revisit the folk traditions of apple divination. Peel an apple in one continuous strip and toss the peel over your shoulder. The shape it forms on the ground is said to represent the first letter of your future beloved’s name. Ask a yes or no questions and slice the apple crosswise to reveal the hidden pentagram within – a ritual of revealing the sacred geometry that lies at the core of all things – an even number of seeds indicates a yes, and an odd number indicates no. Mindfully eat the apple, asking for insight or envisioning the love you wish to share, and let its seeds remind you of the potential for new life held within the darkness.

 

The Fires of Transformation :: Releasing the Old & Reigniting the Sovereign Soul

 

The great Samhain bonfire, or ‘bone-fire,’ is an ancient tradition of communal protection, cleansing, and alchemical transformation. Its fiery energy is a perfect match for the presence of Mars in Scorpio, which intensifies our drive for profound and lasting change. This is the crucible where we burn away the old year and purify ourselves for the new.

 

A Guided Fire Ritual for Release

 

Create a safe container, both physically and spiritually, for this powerful work. Whether you have a large bonfire or a single candle in a cauldron, the intention is the same.

1. Name to Tame: Take a piece of paper and write down the ancestral patterns, generational wounds, limiting beliefs, or sorrows you are ready to release. Be specific. This is an act of bringing the shadow into the light to be witnessed and honored.
2. Corporeal Consent to Release: Before burning the paper, hold it to your heart. Take a deep breath. Thank this pattern for the protection it once offered you or your ancestors. Acknowledge its role in your story. Then, with love and clarity, give it explicit permission to leave your body and your lineage. This is an act of Corporeal Consent with your own past, a sovereign choice to let go.
3. Offer to the Flames: Carefully set the paper alight and place it in your fire-safe vessel. As you watch it burn, visualize the pattern dissolving. Feel its weight lifting from your shoulders, its grip loosening from your heart. See its energy being transformed by the flames into pure light and warmth, a physical discharge of emotional weight.
4. Rekindle the Hearth of Sovereignty: Ancient tradition holds that all household fires were extinguished on Samhain and re-lit from a coal taken from the sacred communal bonfire. As you sit with your own fire, see it as this sacred flame. We can choose to become the sacred keepers of our own internal fire – using this rekindling to consciously reignite our own inner flame of sovereignty, truth, and purpose. 

 

For Our Little Saplings :: An EcoRegulation Prompt for the Season of Surrender

 

EcoRegulation is our practice of nature-based nervous system nourishment, a way for humanimals of all ages to find calm and connection by playing with our beloved biosphere. This Samhain, we can guide our little ones through the great cycle of letting go with a playful, embodied prompt.

 

The Great Surrender: Becoming a Leaf

 

• Find Your Tree: Begin by finding a tree that is shedding its leaves or needles. Place your hands on its trunk and thank it for its beauty, its shade, and the gift of air it gives us. This establishes a relationship of gratitude and animist connection.
• Embody the Leaf: Now, pretend you are a leaf or needle still clinging to a branch. Feel the crisp autumn wind start to blow. Wiggle and dance on your branch, feeling the last of your connection to the tree.
• The Surrender {Gravity as Love}: On a big, loud exhale, let go! Twirl, spin, and float down, down, down to the ground. Feel the Earth’s love – which we call gravity – pulling you gently into a soft pile of other leaves or needles. This is not a fall; it is a loving embrace of the Earth pulling you closer.
• The Secure Base Shelter: Wiggle deep into the leaf or needle pile until you are completely snuggled in. This is your cozy, safe nest for the winter. Just like a curious child feels brave enough to explore when a loving parent is nearby, feeling held and safe by the Earth {our ‘Secure Base’} lets our imagination wander into magical places.
• The Compost Cuddle {Reciprocal Respiration}: Snuggled in your leaf nest, take a big breath in, drinking the fresh air the trees made for you. Then, breathe out with a soft, warm sound {Haaaaah}. Imagine you are giving your warm breath back to the Earth as a gift, helping all the leaves turn into rich, dark soil for new seeds to grow in the spring. This is the great feedback loop of life, a compost cuddle that turns endings into new beginnings.

This prompt is a form of somatic storytelling. It allows children to physically enact the cycle of surrender, rest, and renewal. By embodying the leaf, they learn through their nervous system that letting go leads not to loss, but to safety, nourishment, and the promise of new life, building a foundation of resilience for all the seasons of their lives to come.

 

Weaving the New Year on the Loom of Night

 

As we stand in this sacred, liminal space, we offer a final blessing for the Magical New Year. May you have the Scorpionic courage to descend into your depths, the somatic compassion to heal your lineage, the fiery wisdom to release what no longer serves, and the sovereign will to be reborn.

Look ahead to the Super Beaver Moon in Taurus on November 5th. This will be our first great opportunity to ground the ephemeral magic of Samhain into the tangible world. Taurus is the sign of the body, the land, and physical reality. On that night, I invite you to take one small, physical action – plant a seed for the spring, cook a nourishing meal, dance barefoot on the earth – to anchor your Samhain intentions into your bones.

We are the architects of the future, not its victims. We are nature – let us tend to ourselves and our web of interrelation well. 

Blessed bee, 

Reverend Razma 

High PriestX Earth Body Church 

 

p.s. If you are in the Bay Area, please join us in celebrating Samhain in Berkeley, California, USA tonight at 11 pm for services – please email us for the address and parking instructions – earth body church @ gmail . com {remove spaces}

 

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