Samhain: Púcaí, barmbrack and the Otherworld

Samhain is the ancient Celtic festival that marks the Celtic new year. It’s also the most intriguing of all the Celtic fire festivals. It’s associated with sprites and ghosts, fairies and bon(e)fires. It’s a time of dreaming and visions, of mystery and otherworldly happenings. I grew up hearing my mother talk about the ‘thinning of the veil,’ about the mysterious happenings on the sacred evening before Samhain. As we bobbed for apples and helped stir the fortune telling gifts into the barmbrack she told us about the púcaí, and the ancestors who freely crossed over from the Otherworld to this one on this special night. She also said she knew people who crossed over from this realm to that. 

The crossing between worlds was central to our ancestors’ ability to navigate this world; and it still is today even though we’ve mostly forgotten how to do it. Every community in old Ireland had a bean feasa (a wise woman) who had the ability ‘to see beyond the veil.’ She knew how to appropriately access the Otherworld in order to seek wisdom, guidance and protection for the community. She knew how to commune with the spirit of the trees, the plants, animals and the Sacred in order to ask for wisdom or medicine for the body, the mind, spirit and soul of her community. The wise women knew that we humans belong in an indivisible oneness with all of life and that we naturally need guidance, insight and understanding from the unseen realm of the Otherworld. Tír na n-Óg is the Irish name for the world that lies beyond this one. It means the land of eternal youth, meaning where all is ever new and reborn.

There’s a wonderful revival of the original Samhain celebration happening in Ireland at this time. People are rediscovering the sacredness of the liminal crossing over to a ‘new year,’ and remembering the significance of intentionally entering the dark quarter of year when only dreams and visions can show us the way. We’re remembering again that it’s natural to source wisdom and guidance from beyond the veil. To ask the natural world for help, to seek support and partnership from the imaginal realm and from the Sacred Itself. We’re remembering again that the Otherworld is not something ‘other’ but that it’s integral to life in this realm.

It’s been wonderful these past few years for me to join in rituals and fire ceremonies at sacred sites and to re-learn how to access the rich veins of wisdom that lie beyond ordinary human knowing. 

All realms are interconnected. The ancestors have not gone far. They’re available to help, to guide, and to offer wisdom. The wisdom offered by the ancestors at Samhain is integral to human life. We need it. And we can ask for it. 

Blessings of Samhain to you.