Chris Park, Druid & Bard Emma Watkinson

Chris Park is a Druid, artist, musician and storyteller, immersed and versed in the ancient lore and wisdom traditions of the Isles of Britain. He lives in a luxurious hedge with a wayward family surrounded by beehives and organic farmland in the Vale of the White Horse. There he teaches and researches old ways and new. Hosting community ceremony, working with bees and apitherapy, fostering peace and seeking an ever renewed sense of purpose and service

Samhain Ceremony

Gather together & honour the feast of Samhain – remembering the beloved dead, giving thanks and offerings to the gods, surrendering to the spirits of this time and divining for the future.

Samhain – Age old fire festival of these lands, in which offerings to the gods and ancestral feasts have been made since time immemorial. Indigenous sacred time, doorway to the beloved dead, Summer’s end, consolidating, gateway, Celtic magic and lore.

Samhain, Summer’s end, consolidating season of swan songs and ancestral feasting.

Gateway to winter rites, opening the doors for otherworldly voices. Divining, learning & letting go, whatever one’s choices.

Hey ho, darker grow the days,
and the wind blows rain across the land. See the leaves are falling. Hear the spirits calling.

Welcome the damp, the frost and the decaying forces. Know that the makers mischief, misrule and chaos are afoot. Offerings made as songs are sung.

Tangled into the spirits of this time are the wild hunt, and other death dealers, kindred with those who pair down the place.

Memorial service to those passed on, solemnity & silence, fires lit, protection strewn across the threshold, apples bobbed, nuts roasted, communities closer, as the Cailleach is calling, the veiled one, the oldest goddess of them all is coming, feared and revered, yet kindly too.

She of dark mantle, putting to bed the weak, midwife of souls back to the source, stripping trees bare, cleansing, purging, crowing, glinting and keening like a Banshee, foretelling the demise of these times….

After consecration and protection, gratitude and grace becoming… listen… invite…. prépare to wane a while, allow the spirits of this time to scour your soul, scan your being, unlock grief, untie truth, massage mysteries,

Cleansing fire festival of the betrothal of divine beings and the Shining One’s, stronger each circle, ‘momento mori’…

Gathering in and storing the year’s growth for winter sustenance. This season of great change, and intrepidation of cold and challenging gloom ahead. Fears may be found here, as a powerful time of change provokes, and help can be called upon through communion with the ancestors, the gods and the mighty ones. Seek the guidance, ask for the help, however that occurs to you.

Tales are told, of spirits and ghostly flight, tutelary deities, horrors that haunt the Nos Calends, dreams and visions, cunning corpses, teasing trickery, warnings and lore, as traditionally very few would venture out doors on these nights without strong magic, foolhardy foray or enchanted fate.

This time, as with many Celtic feast days, is peacetime among tribes. No weapon lifted, whatever the quarrels have been. Reconciliation and sharing of victuals, common concerns and bonding rituals.

Somewhere amidst the awe of rememberance, the cleansing fires, the song and story, dances and divinations. Ask yourself how you feel about your ancestors, if it’s easy or difficult to embrace this festival? If and how it might bring blessings and balms to your life? How best to embody remembrance? Which family patterns may be worth keeping, and which may be worth giving away to the fire, or the cauldron of rebirth and the Cailleach? Are there habits and opinions, engagements and battles, or anything that might be stake that can be let go of and given to the grateful compost of this time?

May you be graced by the stars of Samhain above, the root strengthening power of this season, and the closer circles of family & friendship. May the fires warm you through, bring peace and truce and trrut. May any feasting be exquisite, any tales be enchanting, and any prayers be strong.

Wishing you a very blessed Samhain and Nos Calends, much love and magic, sweet solemnity and life affirming connection to this world and the other