Samhain & an Invitation into Slow Ceremony

by Kayce Stevens Hughlett

Many thanks to Vanessa Sage and her invitation for me to contribute to her Slow Ceremonial Year project. This is my contribution for Samhain week (October 28  - November 1). You can learn more and receive all the journal prompts by clicking here. 

Samhain (pronounced saa - win) is one of my favorite threshold times of year. Equally as challenging as it is to pronounce is the ability to convey the multiple ways to embrace this liminal season when the veil is especially thin between earth, heaven, and ethereal whispers. The best way I’ve found to convey what this season’s slow ceremony might look like is to welcome you inside my own.

My personal ceremony comes from a love force—one that honors my experience and doesn’t try to impress or be anything that it’s not. It evolves freely and without expectation. No rules. No right or wrong way to proceed. It is the space that honors you, too, as you’re invited to join me by creating your own experience.

Today’s invitation begins with what I call and ABC prompt. With pen and journal close by, begin to follow your breath until a sense of grounding permeates your body. Breathe in the depth of the season, feeling the expression of this thin time. Allow as much time as you need to feel settled. When you are ready, pick up your pen and with the essence of the season in mind listen to your internal prompts to create a 26-word poem, prose, or gibberish gymnastics. Begin with the letter A and follow letter-by-letter through to Z. Allow your words to flow without planning or need for perfection. Have fun. Notice what stands out. Repeat and ponder as necessary.

Here is what popped up for me:

Awakening before clear dawn, everything feels gooey. Here I justify knowing little, meaning nothing overtly profound. Questions rise. Spirit teases. Understanding vacillates. Wonder eXists. Yearning zooms. #abcprompt #ksh

Voíla! Here in this supple space—the liminal season when the veils soften and the day emerges between darkness and dawn—I sit and ponder, allowing myself to simply be. Mindful of the moment on the wheel, rife with possibility and potential. Expectations of “what if” could send me into a nose dive when I forget simplicity and the elegance of slow ceremony. What if I do this wrong? What if I miss an important message or opportunity? What if it makes no sense? What if? What if? What if?

Breathe, dear one. You’ve got this. What if I sit and wait? Simply be? What if my slow ceremony is to immerse myself here and now, in this moment and season? What if I surrender to curiosity and gratitude? To time, space, and trust? To all the sweet tugs of my heart? What if I simply soften and listen? What if you do the same?

~~~

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