Astronomical Samhain

 The Void gets spooky with pumpkins

Even more potent is true midnight on the night of Astronomical Samhain – the best time to perform divinatory rites, honor ancestors, and do cleansing and banishing magick. Scrying is especially powerful at that time.
You can determine true midnight by looking in the Almanac to see exactly when the sun sets at night and when the sun rises the next morning. Midnight is the halfway point exactly between sundown and sunup.
The ancient Celts considered Samhain / Nos Calan Gaeaf / Nos Galan Gwaf to be the end of Summer and the beginning of the Winter season. Celtic people believed the holiday, and the new year, to commence at sundown. Modern Pagans view it as “Death Season”, which ends at Imbolc / Calan Fair / Candlemas / Lady Day. Witches say that the veil between the worlds are thinnest on Samhain night, and spirits are more able to be seen. Welsh / Cymric folks consider Nos Calan Gaeaf to be an ysbrednos or “spirit night”, when ancestors and spectral beings walk, and one can communicate with them. 

​Today, November 7th, is Astronomical Samhain. How does that differ from the plain old, garden-variety Halloween?
Our Druidic predecessors used certain features of astronomy, viewing the heavens, to determine when the actual date of the holiday occurs. This includes:

• The Pleiades, or Seven Sisters constellation, is the highest point in the visible sky for the entire year at Samhain. The Seven Sisters are also very close to the moon, shich is especially vibrant during a full moon, like this year.
• The sun is 15* at the constellation of Scorpio.
• It’s the exact midpoint between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice.

Personally, I have noticed increased spirit activity between Oct. 31st and tonight.

This is an optimal time to perform rites that signify endings and beginnings. What traits, situations, or ideas do you wish to get rid of? Banish them on Samhain night. What things do you want to carry over to the new year? What conditions do you wish to invoke? This is the perfect time for starting things – a diet, a project, a fun activity. The new year is the perfect time for beginnings.

Nos Calan Gaeaf Happus!
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