Oct 5, 2026 · 26 min · 10 segments
The power of Samhain is more than just one day... \*THIS WEEK'S BONUS EPISODE "HOW TO ENCHANT YOUR WALLET" IS AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON OUR PATREON- paid members only! VISIT OUR…
It was meant to mark the transition from the lighter half of the year into the darker half.
It was connected to the end of the harvest, the preparation for winter, communal gatherings, fires, feasting, and beliefs that surrounded the other world.
The traditional practices surrounding Samhain were not identical everywhere, so many of the ideas that modern witches associate with the holiday have actually evolved through centuries of various folklore, cultural traditions, modern paganism, and contemporary witchcraft.
So I think it is important that we distinguish between what is historical practice and the way that modern witches interpret and celebrate Samhain today.
But there is one theme that remains very powerful and very versatile throughout the traditions: liminality.
It is the threshold between autumn and winter, harvest and dormancy, the light and the dark.
And in many traditional beliefs, it's also a time when the boundary between our world and the other world is considered especially permeable.
That is where we get a lot of the modern witchcraft association with spirits and ancestors and the idea of the veil as it's thinning.
And whether you understand that concept as a spiritual concept or you understand it more symbolically or somewhere in between, there is something undeniably magical about working with a season that encourages us to pay attention to what exists between worlds.
I know witches have always been interested in thresholds.
Most of us are.
Doorways, crossroads, we talk a lot about doing midnight magic and doing things during twilight, the moment before sunrise, the moment after sunset.
These are spaces where one state of being becomes another.
It asks us to pause and recognize that as the seasons change, so are we.
And this is one of the reasons I wanted to have this episode be structured as it is, because I love to begin Samhain work before October 31st, and we don't talk about it early enough, in my opinion.
You don't have to wait for one particular night to begin connecting with the energy of the season.
In fact, I think there's something much more meaningful about allowing the entirety, so the entire month of October, to become this gradual transition toward that night.
It was meant to mark the transition from the lighter half of the year into the darker half.
It was connected to the end of the harvest, the preparation for winter, communal gatherings, fires, feasting, and beliefs that surrounded the other world.
The traditional practices surrounding Samhain were not identical everywhere, so many of the ideas that modern witches associate with the holiday have actually evolved through centuries of various folklore, cultural traditions, modern paganism, and contemporary witchcraft.
So I think it is important that we distinguish between what is historical practice and the way that modern witches interpret and celebrate Samhain today.
But there is one theme that remains very powerful and very versatile throughout the traditions: liminality.
It is the threshold between autumn and winter, harvest and dormancy, the light and the dark.
And in many traditional beliefs, it's also a time when the boundary between our world and the other world is considered especially permeable.
That is where we get a lot of the modern witchcraft association with spirits and ancestors and the idea of the veil as it's thinning.
And whether you understand that concept as a spiritual concept or you understand it more symbolically or somewhere in between, there is something undeniably magical about working with a season that encourages us to pay attention to what exists between worlds.
I know witches have always been interested in thresholds.
Most of us are.
Doorways, crossroads, we talk a lot about doing midnight magic and doing things during twilight, the moment before sunrise, the moment after sunset.
These are spaces where one state of being becomes another.
It asks us to pause and recognize that as the seasons change, so are we.
And this is one of the reasons I wanted to have this episode be structured as it is, because I love to begin Samhain work before October 31st, and we don't talk about it early enough, in my opinion.
You don't have to wait for one particular night to begin connecting with the energy of the season.
In fact, I think there's something much more meaningful about allowing the entirety, so the entire month of October, to become this gradual transition toward that night.
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