October and November are intensely magickal times of the year, in part because of their in-between states. It’s not quite the end of fall, but it’s definitely not winter yet (in the Northern Hemisphere) and that makes the world a spooky, changeable place. Magickal folks love that atmosphere—all the better for casting spells and throwing cards. After all, Samhain is when anything can happen, and magick is about ensuring what happens is good!
Spells of the Living
Samhain is a time to contemplate what you need to survive. Smart witches use any Samhain energy they can to make the winter more bearable!
The Needfire Spell
A needfire is a bonfire used to kindle magickal energy for a specific purpose, usually a serious survival need. Deep-seated needs belong in this fire: wishes for someone to recover his or her good health from an especially dangerous illness, requests for money to get through the winter (so as to keep the heat from getting shut off), and even for a new home if there is no current dwelling or if the current dwelling makes inadequate winter shelter.
If you live in a place where you can easily access a fire pit, get what you need to start a fire and bring jugs of water to extinguish it. Also, make sure you have paper, pens, a list of needs, and offerings of dried herbs (chamomile, marigold flowers, and rosemary are appropriate). Establish the fire area as a sacred space, and then start the fire. Once you have it burning steadily, write down different needs on a piece of paper and then throw it into the fire, saying “Spirit of the Samhain flame, see to these needs in the coming year!” Follow the needs with an offering. When finished, meditate on the fire until it starts dying down. Make sure you put the fire out totally before leaving.
A Spell to Settle Old Debts
One Irish proverb says “everyone has debts on Halloween.” Since Samhain is a time of the old going out and the new coming in, this is an excellent time to call on magick for help in settling your own arrears. These days, everyone has them, whether the standard mortgage payment, that persistent student loan, or that credit card bill left over from a month when your car broke down.
For this spell, you’ll need a heatproof container, some copies of bills you’ve already paid, and a sturdy banishing herb such as Solomon’s seal, marjoram, or a few twigs trimmed from a lilac bush. Perform this spell outdoors or in a well-ventilated space if possible.
Put the bill in the container and light it, chanting:
As these bills burn,
chains melt,
debts be fed,
debts be dead.
The money I earn
I keep for myself!
As each bill burns, add a few pieces of your chosen herb. Repeat this spell every month until the debts are paid.
Spell against Sorrow
One of the reasons we practice divination at Samhain is that its messages come through with the most clarity. We also do it because we want some reassurance, any we can get really, that everything will be okay. If you are worried about what might happen and feel like the previous years have taken enough, create this ward against sorrow before you perform any Samhain divinations.
For this spell, gather a hot glue gun, a piece of cardboard or posterboard, a fern branch, a sheer scarf, a few sewing pins, and either a medallion of Archangel Michael or an image of a deity you consider a protector. Each symbol is a ward against pain.
The fern: Keeps off old ghosts, inner and outer.
The image of Michael: Protects from all harm; if you prefer not to call on angels, a deity from your own pantheon or a historic figure whom you respect and see as a protector will also work.
The scarf: Represents the veil of Isis, or the person brave enough to look beyond the veil between life and death itself. In this case, you are asking for things to stay behind that veil.
Glue the archangel symbol to the cardboard, then glue the fern branch so it frames the symbol. Wrap the scarf over top of these and pin it to the cardboard.
Take this image into your sacred space and speak sincerely, as you would to a trusted friend, about your recent troubles. Explain why you need a break right now. Hang it across from your front door, so that the image is behind you whenever you greet visitors.
Spell to Heal Grief
Samhain is the most sacred and often the most celebrated of the sabbats. In its sanctity comes a part that’s difficult to celebrate: remembrance. When we remember, we feel. When we feel, we often grieve. Sometimes it’s grief for someone dead; other times it’s grief for what once was, for what never was, and for our own failures. These are all natural parts of the season, just as much as the joy and mystique.
Grief has its place in all of this, but sometimes mourning takes too much of our energy and instead of acting as a way to teach us what we value, it completely colors our worldview. These spells put grief in its proper place—informing us of what we’ve lost, so that we know what in life to cherish.
For this spell, gather together one glass of water, an amethyst, rose quartz, and hematite. Soak the stones in the glass overnight. Using each stone one at a time shake a little fluid over your head each morning, saying each time:
Lovely gem to wounded souls
find and fill the aching holes.
Set to right what grief has rent;
further anguish, please prevent.
Spell to Break an Ongoing Streak of Bad Luck
It seems like bad luck is never an isolated incident. You don’t just get a parking ticket—you get a parking ticket, a tax notice, and you find out you need the roof repaired all on the same day. Bad luck is the streak that messes up life’s paint job.
You can slow that streak with a very simple spell. All you need is table salt.
Pour three lines of salt on a table. All three must be equal in size. Circle your right arm around the salt, lean your head down, and say:
Blessed mother, who art eternal,
cleanse my spirit of its maladies—
let good come to me again.
Sweep the salt away from you; do not reuse.
Spell to Assist in Creative Flow
For artists, winter is often their time of greatest production. However, the dark that comes with Samhain can sap the imagination and the cold can make curling up with a hot drink preferable to working. This spell helps keep the creativity flowing during those times when inertia might win. Take a little bit of that lingering summer energy with you into the dark side of the year so that you have some brightness from within to light your own creative path.
Gather a salt rock crystal, a bit of milk (animal or vegetable), and a cup or glass. Drop the rock crystal in the milk, saying:
Clear the mind,
free the flow,
mind aligned
in creative glow.
The milk will eat away the salt. As the salt melts, so does your creative block.
Spells of the Dead
While this season is a season of magick, it is also a season of honoring death, cherishing memory, and working with spirits. Pagans do not fear death more or less than anyone else. They do make an effort to accept and normalize it as part of nature. Magick that works with the dead, or that acknowledges inner death, helps with this process of acceptance. From communing with departed ancestors to sending psychological issues to their metaphorical graves, witches of all walks find ways to make use of the thinned veil.
A Spell to Speak with Your Ancestors
When the ancestors cross the veil, sometimes they do it in the form you remember. More often, however, they adopt forms as metaphors for what they want to communicate—a butterfly to tell you their soul survived, a breeze to suggest a direction for you to take, or sometimes a specific smell that you associate with that person. These forms may limit communication.
If you wish to apply trancework, however, you can engage a two-way conversation. If you try this, it’s a good idea to have someone you trust nearby to check on you and keep you safe. Spend some time praying for the protection of your deity before you enter the trance to ensure that only ancestors with intents that align with yours appear.
Set up your sacred space with comfortable seating and a table with pictures and mementos of the ancestor or ancestors with whom you wish to communicate. Prepare a list of questions you might want to ask. You may also want to prepare some chamomile, mullein, and mugwort tea to help you relax.
After you set up the space, take a bath. Visualize any conflicting energy circling down the drain. Pause to anoint yourself with protection oil and say a few more prayers for protection as you do this work. Then don the clothing of your choice (comfortable is better) and prepare a small plate of food and a small beverage to offer your visiting ancestors. Bring this to the altar. Then, perform any rites that make a space sacred to you.
Sit down on your chair or pillows and take several deep breaths, as many as you need, until you feel yourself relaxing. At that point, announce to the ancestors that you would like to converse with them this evening. Say no more. Resume your deep breathing, paying calm attention to what you hear, see, smell, and feel.
When you feel you have completed your ritual, thank the ancestors for their time and ask them to return to the place they came from, expressing your love and gratitude for crossing the veil to come see you.
Give yourself a few moments to write down any information you felt important. When finished, open your sacred space, throw away or bury the food offerings, and take part in some lively, life affirming activity.
The Hell Money Spell
While we often think about our ancestors as omnipresent and possibly omniscient, some traditions assume that the ancestors have afterlives of their own to worry about, too. In China, people find ways to provide for their departed relatives. Hell money is paper money intended for the dead. You can buy some from an Asian grocery store or you can design and print your own. When you burn this money, it is believed that it goes to the afterlife, so that the departed can participate in the economy of the underworld. If you decide to send money to your ancestors, make sure you send it in big bundles—inflation is ridiculous in the land of the dead!
You can perform this spell as an act of reciprocation to grandparents or dead relatives who made sacrifices or enacted kindnesses for you while alive. Think of it as a way to thank grandparents for all the times they stuck a little extra money in your birthday card.
Hell money can also pay for support from elemental spirits, as a means of tipping them after they complete errands.
If you want to draw assistance to yourself, get a red drawstring bag, a magnet (one off your refrigerator will do), and a small note stating what you would like to attract. Carry this with you until what you want is part of your life. Once you have obtained your desire, the spell is complete. Keep the bag and magnet, and burn the hell money and the note. When a new need comes your way, simply add a new bill of hell money and a note and carry the bag again.
Protection Spells
According to folklore and modern news stories, Samhain/Halloween marks a dangerous season. The thinning veil tests our courage against the unknown, and the seasonal activities sometimes force us to stand back while our living beloveds take risks great and small as part of the merriment. Ease your worries a little by adding a few magickal protective measures alongside the day-to-day efforts.
Trick-or-Treating Protection
Every parent wants a safe child on Halloween night. While many do this by insisting on accompanying their children on trick-or-treating rounds, older children may want their independence. Along with reflective tape, flashlights, multiple exhortations about strange behaviors, and ignoring their protests and going with them anyway, add a few protective details to their costumes, shoes, and even in the bottom of their trick-or-treat buckets to prevent them from wandering into fairyland.
Sew this into their costume lining: Two sticks of rowan wood tied together with a red thread to form a plus sign. These days you can purchase sticks online. Faeries dislike rowan wood, so this will keep them off your children.
Glue this to the bottom of their treat bucket: Find a hag stone (a stone with a small natural hole through the center) and glue it on the inside bottom of the treat bucket. Troublesome spirits will steer clear of the candy. Then the only evil to combat will be whatever lies in too much sugar.
Threshold Magick
Threshold magick addresses vulnerability we expose ourselves to daily: that which lies between. When we think of thresholds, we think mainly of doors and windows. But thresholds cover far more than that; bridges, curbs, fences, and even water inlets serve as spaces between two worlds. Each of these is magickally powerful and a place where you are vulnerable. These spots align with the veil by literally cutting a space between one thing and another, usually the inside world of the home and the outside world of the wild universe. The following spells and practices help you seal off some of those vulnerabilities.
Samhain House Blessing
Ancient Pagans often prepared for Samhain with intense cleaning and organizing. This was to honor their visiting ancestors by presenting themselves at their best. It likely also made the winter work all the easier to do, as they had just reviewed where they put everything!
Nowadays, Samhain is still an excellent time for house cleansing and blessing. It gives you a chance to scoot out stagnant energy, and to weave in protective wards and blessings throughout your home.
This spell is really a series of spells, and depending on the square footage of your home, you may want to work on one floor per day over a series of several days, or one room per day, especially if you have a lot of clutter. You will need garbage bags to package and remove clutter, whether donating or discarding. You will also need a smudge stick or spray, a dark blue candle, a plate and small offerings of food, a candle of any color you like as an offering, and a spray bottle filled with saltwater.
House cleansing can take place at any time and is always beneficial. For best results, repeat cleansings and blessings once a month. It includes the following steps:
1. Physical cleaning
2. Smudging/cleansing by air
3. Smudging/cleansing by fire
4. Smudging/cleansing by water and earth
5. Making an offering to the household deities/to the deities to which you pray, asking for their blessing and protection on your household.
A Samhain cleansing should also include placing a ward on all the doors, windows, sources of information, and sources of transportation.
After clearing clutter as much as you can, smudge the room with white sage or a stick of frankincense incense. If you are allergic to incense smoke, you may smudge the room using a sprayer filled with a tea made from the sage or other cleansing herbs such as lemongrass and rosemary. Ask that the smoke or scent render each piece of energy it touches clean and healthy.
Follow this by lighting a dark blue candle and walking to every corner of your home, asking that the light seal your home from harm of any kind.
Set the candle in a heatproof dish on your stove and allow it to burn down. Then use the spray bottle to spritz every corner, door, and window in your home, calling on water and earth to combine its powers so that those with good intentions can enter easily and those with bad intentions find themselves distracted from entering.
Once you have finished preparing your home with this blessing, light the offering candle and lay out some food and drink on your stove (the modern equivalent of the hearth), addressing prayers to the deities of most importance in your home and asking for their protection as they remove all troublesome energies and spirits.
Garage Protection Spell
In historic rural Ireland and Scotland, scores of spells revolved around protecting barns and livestock. Pagan farm owners may well still use those spells. Since the advent of the automobile, magickal people may also in turn apply barn magick to their garage, as it protects one of our primary and most costly forms of transportation.
You will need visit a source of running water. While a natural source is preferable, if you live somewhere landlocked you can use a public fountain or simply run your tap.
Take a silver coin (a silver dollar is ideal) and a quartz crystal. Dip the coin into running water, envisioning the molecules of the water and the coin comingling and becoming part of one another. Take the coin and the crystal and glue or tape it to the inside of your garage door or to the ceiling of your garage.
You may want to keep a second coin and crystal in a jar of your source water. When it comes time to renew house blessings and defenses, anoint the mounted crystal and coin with the water to refresh its energy.
A Spell for Protection from the Dark
The darkness of Samhain season is a tricky thing. It gives us an opportunity to work magick that doesn’t play well with the light of day. On the other hand, that darkness is with us everywhere, as are strange creatures of the night lurking in our psychic shadows. Rather than jump at every shadow you face, give yourself a rest with a bit of coral and jet.
Take each stone and speak to it as though it’s a person who can hear you. Say you need protection, the sorts of things you need protection from, and that they can do this job. If you have time, leave them in a moonlit window during the full three days of the full moon, talking to the stones about their assigned jobs during the daylight hours.
After you have sufficiently blessed and activated the stones, stitch them into your gloves or into some other piece of clothing you wear often. They will protect you from the weird things lurking in the dark so that you may go about your business.
Love Spells
The idea of Samhain being a time of love spells might seem strange to us nowadays. After all, who wants to flirt with a stranger with your dear departed grandma looking on? It seems, though, that Grandma might help you pick right. Back in the old days, fire festivals were premiere social occasions that played an important role in matchmaking. Hence, most of the divinations of the season concerned discovering the identity of a future spouse. We live longer and so our priorities surrounding love are different now; some of us seek life companionship, others a friend for a season. Samhain, because of its between-the-words nature, best suits spells for enduring love and friendship.
A Love Uncrossing Spell
If you feel like your love life carries some curse or karmic burden, try this to lift it. It may not replace the basic need for therapy or for learning new ways to think about emotional connection, but it is a great way to set the intention of trying to be different with love in the new year.
Gather a purple or black candle, a heatproof plate or bowl, blank paper, a marker, rue oil or a pinch of olive oil with rue stirred in, a nail or pencil, and one of your own hairs.
Set the plate in the center of your sacred space. Draw a figure eight on the piece of paper. Mark five plus marks inside the figure on both sides, for a total of ten marks. Carve your own name on the candle and run oil on it from the end to the wick. Place your hair on top of the seal and the candle over top. Light the candle. As it burns, chant seven times:
Samhain day to Samhain night,
take away my own heart’s blight.
Free my heart from seals and blocks;
the world of love now unlocks!
Allow the candle to burn for seven minutes a day. When gone, carry the seal in a pocket or in your wallet.
A Spell to Release Old Loves of the Past
Sometimes what keeps you moving forward is affection lingering from your past. Samhain, at a time where time itself is in an in-between phase, is an excellent time to release that energy. By letting go of old karmic bonds, you gift yourself a chance to move forward with your life.
You will need a cord or a piece of twine that is large enough to tie around your waist with an additional two feet of cord remaining. Also, get some lemongrass essential oil for after your work. To make sure that these changes are irreversible, rub a little walnut oil on your fingers.
Since spells of release act as cleansing ceremonies, make sure you take a bath beforehand, concentrating on all you want to send to the beyond. Once you have bathed, dress comfortably and establish your sacred space. Take the cord around your waist, and while around you, add timber hitch knots to tie the ends together, adding one knot for each relationship energy you intend to release. As you tie each knot, think about a specific person and the intense memories, connections, and feelings you carry for that person. Take care to remember both the good and the bad thoroughly. Follow this process for each knot until you no longer have any remaining cord.
Spread your arms and legs apart, imitating Da Vinci’s Vitruvian man, and close your eyes. Visualize the way these energies bind you and how they disrupt the flow of energy between you and the greater universe. Once you feel this energy as viscerally as you can, pick up the last knot you tied, and untie it. Take a few deep breaths as the energy from that bind flows back out into the universe and out of your life.
When you have untied all the knots, let the rope drop from your waist to the floor. Rub your hands and your solar plexus in a lemongrass-scented oil, taking deep breaths as the oil soaks into your skin. Then anoint the crown of your head, your heart, and your belly, giving yourself a fresh capacity to connect to others in a loving way. After cleaning your sacred space, you should either burn or bury the cord.
Faery Magick
Faery Magick involves a complicated dance between protection from faeries and cooperation with them. There are many theories about what they are but no one knows exactly. What we do know is that when the veil thins, Samhain becomes the time that belongs to them. We also know that faeries are more diverse than cute winged creatures; just because they appear as charming does not mean that they actually are. Some people, based on their cultural upbringing, want to avoid faeries. Others want to embrace them. What follows leaves room for both worldviews.
A Spell to Prevent Faery Theft or Nightmares
Many legends forewarn that the faeries may try to steal children. In addition, scary movies are often popular at this time of year, and the images a child or adult might take to bed can lead to some troubled sleep. This spell covers both problems. It should stop a faery from trying to steal your child (or you!) and it prevents nightmares after that ten-hour American Horror Story marathon.
All you need is a hag stone. A hag stone is simply a stone with a naturally worn hole through the center. These used to be difficult to obtain unless you lived near a beach in the United Kingdom; these days, however, you can order them online. Hang it above the bed on a string or mount it on a piece of cardboard with glue. Above it, attach two long iron nails that cross each other in the middle. The nightmares will sweep through the hole and errant faeries won’t come near you!
A Spell to Make the Faeries Welcome
If you want the faeries in your home, make it habitable to them. Pick a corner by a door or window, and set a cup and saucer there. Place a hollowed eggshell inside. (You can do this by using a sewing pin to poke holes on either end of the egg and then blow the yolk out.) Leave out a thimble filled with milk every day. When you take the thimble outside, take a few minutes to chat with your prospective tenant about house rules. Please note that this only works with animal milk. Faeries take compacts seriously; if you make a promise, follow through or face unpleasant consequences.
A Spell to Claim a Hive of Bees
There are those who believe that some tales of faeries are metaphors for vegetation spirits. This metaphor is especially likely in the case of bees. Nowadays, any magick at all to propagate them is a good thing. So if a swarm of bees appears on land that you happen to grow food on, put on gloves and sprinkle some foxglove seeds or leaves and lay claim to them, saying:
These bees are mine,
part of my land!
The Scottish Highlanders saw unclaimed bees as bad luck, so claim them, as to have them nowadays is lucky!
Divination
When the veil thins between worlds, it also thins the lines between past, present, and future. This makes it an excellent time to pull out tarot cards or play games of fate. For those who prefer quiet evenings indoors on Samhain night, try these methods to pass the time and plan the future.
The Thimble Spell
Right before bed, take a sewing thimble and scoop salt into it. Then walk backward from your bedroom door to your bed. When you lie down, grasp the thimble firmly between your thumb and forefinger. Gaze at it until you need sleep. This will fix the thimble in your mind as a dream symbol and anchor. The salt will make you thirsty. In your dreams, the person who gives you a beverage will also be your next lover.
The Kale Dream to See Your Future Spouse
Cabbage and kale played greatly into old Halloween traditions. Young people would sneak into a neighbor’s yard at midnight and pull a kale stalk. The kale would then be hung over a doorway overnight (to charge it with some threshold magick, possibly) and then the next morning someone would examine the roots, leaves, and soil for traits of that person’s future spouse. Unfortunately, records are inconsistent as to what plant detail translated to what in terms of spousal fortunes.
You don’t need to steal your neighbor’s kale to perform this divination, nor do you need some esoteric knowledge of leaf quality. If you happen to grow kale, or have a local source handy, try this spell.
First, make a kale stew. If you are not normally a kale fan and want to try this, make ramen noodles and stir in the kale. Allow it to become cold.
Go to your bedroom just before bed. Hold the pot of cold kale and stand on something you have never stood on before. (A towel will do.)
Say nine times:
Hot kale, cold kale, help me see
who I might marry
and who might marry me.
Drink nine times from the stew, set the pot aside, and then walk backward into your bed. You will dream of your future spouse. Dispose of the stew in the morning.
The Nut Crack Divination
This old Scottish tradition helped gents and ladies make up their minds when they had more suitors than they could handle. Take three nuts and set them over an open flame (or in a frying pan.) Name one nut for yourself, and name the other nuts for your sweethearts. If the nuts jump closer to your nut, they are more inclined toward you. If the nut cracks or jumps often, the lover is untrustworthy. The closer a nut burns to yours, the more likely marriage will follow. You can also use this as a means of divining which of your friends are most trustworthy.
The Divination of the Three Plates
This variation on blindman’s buff is a Scottish divination. You will need a blindfold and three plates: one filled with grain (meal was traditional), one filled with soil, and one with any type of net. Blindfold the person and turn him or her around three times, then let that person’s hand fall on a plate. This will foretell what comes in the next year.
The meal/grain stands for prosperity, the soil for death (which often indicates dramatic not usually literal changes), and the net for tangled fortunes (what we of the modern day call “drama”).
A Rune Spell to Change Your Fate
A few things in life are fated. Most, however, you can change. This spell is all about rewriting your fate, at least when there isn’t some life lesson written in what’s already coming.
You will need a set of runes, a plate to rest them on, mugwort, and a dictionary that details rune meanings if you do not already have them memorized. You may also wish to make an offering or write a letter of petition to the Fates or the face of fate in your specific tradition.
In your sacred space, take out three runes that represent the situation at hand or the three runes that troubled you when you gave yourself a reading. Set those out on the plate.
Next, set the runes that represent your desired outcome on top of the original runes. Surround these with mugwort. Visualize the runes glowing, eventually making the energy of the runes beneath them dust—where only your desired fate remains. Leave the runes undisturbed in their herbal circle for three days.
Samhain is a time when all things are possible. It is also a time to create new possibilities. Use this time as the ground grows colder to shape what might greet you in the spring. The air is rich with magick, so use this time to partake of that particular fruit!