Samhain marks the start of winter, and is seen as a time to honour those who have come before and that which is new, as well as a time to ask for guidance and set intentions for the year ahead. (Sophia Banks Photography/Provided by Kluane Atwater)

It is Halloween in the Comox Valley, but there is a deeper spiritual, and even religious story to be told behind the origins of this festive day; one that is still honoured by witches today.

Kluane Atwater is a witch and ritualist, someone who practices magic in her daily life. She joined CHLY and DIG FM to talk about Samhain (pronounced sow-in), the Pagan sabbat that may have inspired Halloween, and how it is celebrated by Pagans here in the Comox Valley, on the traditional territory of the K’ómoks First Nation.

“Samhain is a Gaelic festival that happens around October 31st, November 1st, it's a marking of the end of the harvest season, beginning of the darker months, and it's a kind of liminal threshold time. You'll often hear the saying that ‘the veil is especially thin at this time of year,’ so that means that the veil between the living and the dead, or the living and the spirits, is especially thin,” Atwater said.

Not too far removed from the ghosts and skeletons that have become unmistakable symbols of Halloween, Atwater explained that Samhain is a time for honouring cycles of life and death, honouring those who have passed and those who have been born this past year. She said it is a time for connecting with ancestors, whether familial or those who have come before in another sense, as well as a time for quiet reflection, and even divination.

Atwater is not the only witch practicing in the Comox Valley, and she shared some of the rituals those she practices with may be doing this year.

“Some folks like to gather around this time of year for something called a silent dinner. Where the table is set, folks are gathered and there's an empty seat, an empty plate that's meant to be kind of to symbolize feeding the ancestors and those who have gone before. And the meal is typically spent in silence, and it's spent communing with any folks who have passed, it’s spent in deep reflection,” Atwater said.

Tarot and oracle cards are a common form of divination that many use to find clarity or guidance. (Sophia Banks Photography/Provided by Kluane Atwater)

“And so that's one practice. A lot of folks around this time of year are also making ancestor alters, and so that's gathering photos and mementos of folks who have passed. It's also a really good time for divination, this kind of idea that the veil has been, that we can sometimes communicate or connect with spirits a little bit easier. And so divination can take so many different forms, one practice that’s common these days is pulling tarot or oracle cards. There's also the old image of someone scrying in a crystal ball that sometimes that can be done in water or in other ways. Some folks use rooms, some people will throw sticks or, and see what shape emerges and what messages they see,” she said.

Atwater said that it is also common to have group rituals around the turnings of the Wheel of the Year, the witches’ calendar of sabbats and esbats recognizing the passing seasons. These eight spokes of the wheel fall on the solstices, equinoxes, and cross-quarters, and include commonly known festivals like Yule which falls near Christmas, and Ostara which falls near Easter. These Pagan celebrations focus on the changes in the seasons, and the growing and waning of light.

Samhain, the eighth festival, is also known as the witches’ new year, and is seen not only as a time to honour those who have come before and that which is new, but also to ask for guidance and set intentions for the year ahead.

“This is actually one of my favourites of the kind of eight sabbats, or equinoxes, or the solstices, or the eight turnings of the Wheel of the Year. I have such a fondness for Scorpio season and the incoming darkness, and I love the idea of getting a bit quiet after a really bright and busy summer, moving into the darker months, sitting by candlelight a lot more than electric light, taking a moment to pause and connect. And it could be an especially powerful time to practice magic or rituals or kind of intentional connection with ancestors,” Atwater said.

“And so it's kind of like sometimes referred to as ‘spooky season’ and sometimes people can kind of feel there's like something in the air and sometimes this is a time when there's more storms and wild winds and rains. And for me it just kind of feels like a time of year where there's extra magic in the air, and spells and magic are especially powerful. And when I say spells, there's a lot of different ways to define spells; one of my teachers calls spells ‘prayers with audacity,’ and so it's the idea of matching intention with action,” she said.

Atwater said it is a special time to connect with ancestors, but not only those who are connected by blood or family lineage – she has also learned to connect with ancestors who have walked similar paths.

“For myself, for example, as a queer person, I think about making offerings to queer ancestors that have come before me, that have paved the way for me to be able to exist as I am proudly in the world with at least more safety than many of them used to have. And so I like to offer that idea to folks, because not everyone has a connection to ancestral lineage for whatever reason, either through displacement or in either side of colonization or other forms of rupture, and maybe like lack of connection to blood family,” she said. “And so it can feel a little isolating, or maybe not available, to connect with ancestors if it's only those of blood. But I invite folks to think about like, who are you in the world and who has been a part of making that possible for you? Whether it's your identity or your hobbies or your practices, who might you want to offer some gratitude to for being able to live the life that you have now?”

Samhain marks entering the darkest time of the year, leading up to the winter solstice, or Yule, when the longest night passes and the light is reborn. Atwater reflected on this time of darkness, and the weight it carries with the state of current events.

“Samhain is about a time of turning towards the darkness. And I think in a time when there is so much darkness in the world: fascism, multiple forms of oppression, and a lot of people experiencing a lot of harm globally, and also locally in local forms of harm and oppression, that this can be a time of year to really sit with that. And I know for myself sometimes that is not always a comfortable process, to really turn towards what is dark in myself or the world, the kind of shadow side of myself or the world,” she said.

“And so I think, in a time when global news and also local news can leave one feeling sometimes distraught or numb, there's something about this season that is embracing the darkness, I think a little bit. That is embracing maybe mystery, the things that we cannot know, and so there's a real humility in that. And also, something that's really necessary about not just living a perpetual summer and you know, ‘good vibes only,’ that there's something special about this time of year. Of recognizing that the darkness is part of the cycle of life and death, and we cannot have the brightness and the good without also moving through grief and sorrow and pain,” Atwater said.

Atwater’s magic is connected to herself, the elements, and nature. (Sophia Banks Photography/Provided by Kluane Atwater)

Atwater grew up playing with mud and flowers and river water, making potions in the backyard of her childhood. Even then she felt she could see things others couldn’t, things like fairies. As she grew older, she says she lost touch with that magic and childlike wonder, the same way many adults do, becoming more agnostic or atheist. But as a teen she realized that there are many benefits to believing in something larger than oneself, and engaging in mystery.

“And so I decided, all right, I want to have a spirituality or a religious practice. And I went to churches and synagogues and mosques and Buddhist gatherings and I tried to see what would connect with what I was looking for, which was a non-dogmatic approach that was feminist and not patriarchal, that was earth-based and seasonal, and that was also appropriate for me to practice within my own ancestral lineages. And so through a long process of trying a lot of different practices, I landed on a Pagan, earth-based spirituality that is connected to my ancestry in Europe,” Atwater said.

“And I found and learned from a number of different traditions, including the Reclaiming tradition out of the Bay Area that really focuses on the intersection of spirituality and also political activism. And so a really important part of my spiritual practice is having political grounding my work, because if we're not doing magic for the liberation of ourselves and all people, like what are we doing magic for? So it's always been really important for me to think more kind of globally and politically about my spiritual practices,” she said.

Atwater made this connection in her late teens, and since then has leaned into learning from various teachers, as well as the plants and animals around her, to develop her personal earth-based practice.

As a settler practicing earth-based traditions on colonized Indigenous land, Atwater made clear the importance of recognizing how recently Indigenous people of this land were not allowed to practice their own earth-based traditions, with the Potlatch Ban only ending in 1951. Atwater recognized her own privilege of being able to practice earth-based traditions on this land, and said this is one of the reasons it is so important for her practice to be political, questioning how her magic can be in service of liberation and decolonization, and showing up where she is asked for in solidarity with local nations.

“Another important part of who I am as a witch is that I believe that magic is everywhere and we do not need special, expensive tools to be magical or do spells. I believe we actually only really need our own bodies and an intention, and sometimes nature can help as well, but I think magic is accessible to everyone. One of my life goals is to see more and more people be able to practice magic if that's what feels true for them, and to have more ritual in their lives, if that is something that could enrich it,” she said.

This wish has led Atwater to offer herself as a resource and a connector of spiritual community in the Comox Valley, for anyone who may be interested in adding magic to their life, or simply connecting deeper with the seasons as they change.

“We are living in an age where less and less people are part of organized religion and attending church, and I think in that vacuum and in that gap I am hearing that a lot of people still have a craving or an appetite for gathering in song together, marking transitions, of having community. And so I am seeing a lot of people feeling the loss of religious community or spiritual community, feeling the loss of gathering with all sorts of people, including people you don't usually spend time with every Sunday,” she said.

Atwater said that very yearning is part of what led her to spiritual community about 15 years ago.

“I know how much benefit it has brought to my life to live with the seasons, to turn towards ritual when I need it most, to pull a few tarot cards when I am left at a crossroads and I don't know where to go. And it has added such richness to my life. And I often say I love doing magic alone, but I especially love doing magic with other people. And so I am curious to continue to build more spiritual community in the Comox Valley on the land of the Pentlatch, and Ieeksen, and Sathloot, and Sasitla people known as the K’ómoks Nation, because if there's an appetite to connect more to the earth and to the seasonal rhythms of the earth and to connect more of ourselves and to more ritual, I would love to help be part of connecting folks to that,” she said.

“And so that is kind of the idea of building more spiritual community, is having a space for folks who have all different levels of experience and comfort with ritual, being able to connect more. And some of the ways that can look like is having more public rituals so that everyone can experience those. I mean, I wouldn't be mad at having more covens in the valley, more people who gather closely over time, and build relationship, and do really powerful magic together,” Atwater said.

Kluane Atwater said that anyone interested in connecting to spiritual community in the Comox Valley can reach out through her website, ConflictWitch.com. Conflict Witch is a project that combines Atwater’s decade of work and study in conflict mediation and restorative justice with her work as a ritualist and practitioner of magic.

Whether you are celebrating Halloween, Samhain, or another tradition, stay safe this spooky season.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. Reporting done in the Comox Valley is done in partnership with DIG FM.