Samhain represents the half-way point between the Autumn equinox (22 September) and the Winter Solstice (21 December). It is the Celtic end of year or equivalent to “New Year’s Eve”. The Celts believed that life originated from the darkness akin to a cosmic birth canal and the feast of Samhain corresponds to the end of the harvest year.
The Christian Calendar incorporated the feast of Samhain into All Souls Night (November 1st), where the veil between the worlds is said to be at its thinnest allowing the upsurge of souls including those of our ancestors back to the Earthly plane with relative ease.
At this time, we light a fire to assist the traverse of the Sun across the sky and to signify hope and protection from evil spirits and here to light the way into the new year ahead. It is a time to surrender into the fires what no longer serves and a time to remember our ancestors and how their experience has shaped our lives at a profound level. It is a time to honour not just what has passed during the previous year but to honour our lineage and igniting the light of consciousness so that we may cast aside unnecessary chains and move forward with the bounty of the harvest we are blessed with.
We might meditate upon the natural law, which dictates how all that arises must once again fall away. The transience of every living thing. The necessary exhale to nothingness but a nothing pregnant with potential. A void, absolutely necessary to precede new possibilities. In Yoga, we may use the exhale in the breath cycle to symbolize the release and demise of all things but with that release, a sense of letting go, a surrendering. This is the time to surrender, to let go of ties that bind in preparation for the total absorption of the void from which ALL things arise. The divine play of light and dark, Shiva and Shakti. The biggest challenge is to learn to trust the natural cycle and begin to flow with the intrinsic rhythm of our true nature.
We align with the spirit of Samhain and celebrate this letting go with a Mindful Restorative Yoga practice on 30 October 7:30-9PM This practice suits all levels. Booking 10 euro via www.warrioryogasligo.com
Namaste- Saoirse
