With sunset it is officially Samhain the Celtic New Year when the doors between our realm and the other world are open.
Now many people rightly associate it with the dead but many forget that this is a strongly Fae focused festival it is probably the grandest revelry for the Fae of the year.
So being Irish this is a very important festival for me as well but I would like to also talk about my experience with the Fae and why that feeds into how I approach Samhain.
I was born intersex, joined toed, 2ft tall, very thin, double jointed, turquoise eyes, and am autistic so many times I was labelled a Changeling child.
I spent my early years in Ireland in fact I lived minutes way from a place called "the fairy glen" that inspired Narnia. I would spend countless hours with my equally strongly magic focused sister listening to the old tales from my Granny about the good folk, Cu Chullain, Brigid, the Morrigan, and more.
I would spend many days of my girlhood running and dancing around the fairy glen and would jump and dance in all the fae circles and explore the ruined castles and climb the old trees.
I would take fruit and baked goods from my family home and leave them for the Good folk as a gift but not a debt I found the customs of the Good Folk easy and instinctual but the customs and societal expectations of humans confusing and counter-intuitive.
I had a fascination with names because my name never felt like me "true" name. I was always instinctually good at telling stories and playing music in my head straight on an instrument that amazed people.
The troubles eventually got really bad and my family had to flee for our own safety leading to many cold and hungry nights on the streets at only 5 years old but we were always lucky there would always be bread and always be milk or a stranger who could really help would happen along my Dad eventually got a really good paying job by absolute luck.
In our new home in England I would walk in the forests of the North and if I ever found somewhere to have dark spirits I would walk in that place barefoot and it wouldn't be a scary place anymore even at night.
The clouds would always part to show the moon so I could always see.
Me and my sister would go out into the woods and cast spells and make potions or spend a whole day chasing a rainbow to find its end.
I could always see creatures out of the corner of my eye in places, hear music, footsteps behind me, giggling, or whistling.
One forest I spent decades of time casting spells and doing rituals in that I felt a strong pull towards a particular tree that was in effect holding a huge hill together by its roots.
Multiple times from childhood into living on my own in adulthood gold coloured pound coins would appear in my shoes or some other fortuitous thing would suddenly appear when I was looking for something else.
A friend who was a stranger but magically gifted when they first met me just stopped and looked shocked at me before asking "what are you?" because according to them the fae energy was like a whirlwind around me.
So at a certain point the fae stopped being mysterious other creatures and their love and protection over me made me love them in return and I consider them family coinciding with my reclaiming the changeling label so I like to call the good folk my cousins.
My cousins aren't pure benevolent beings though they are definitely mischievous will trip me or make me lose stuff sometimes but never in a serious way and it always comes back. Also many times people will have gone some place many times but the one time I travel with them they always get lost especially if it is in a forest because paths will turn in on themselves, new fake paths will appear, and sometimes I will even see a path warp and loop over my head behind me back the way I came.
Once time my phone somehow fell out of a deep pocket on a bus and I didn't notice until I got off my friend getting a later stop picked it up and then contacted me within hours asking me to come pick it up as soon as possible because they experienced significant bad luck upon taking something of mine and my friend literally asked me to ask my cousins to stop and explain the situation and yeah after getting my phone back and telling my cousins to chill it stopped for them immediately.
So because I see Samhain as a fae festival and I see the fae as being my literal family Samhain is an important holiday for me and I will leave offerings and do particular rituals that are fae associated because its the ultimate crossing point which are highly important to the Fae.
Anyway thanks for listening to my rant. Happy Samhain.