Long before costumes and candy, the last night of October was a threshold. The harvest was in, the light was leaving, and people believed the line between this world and the next grew thin enough to feel.
That older night is still there underneath Halloween. You can sense it on a cold walk home when the leaves are down and the moon is up. This is a gentle guide to meeting it on purpose, with what history holds, what research tells us, and a simple mushroom ritual for the 31st.
Samhain, the night the year turns dark
Halloween’s oldest root is Samhain, the Gaelic festival that closed the harvest. The World History Encyclopedia describes it as the moment that “marked the transition between the year’s lighter and darker halves,” a time when crops were gathered in and homes were made ready for winter.
It was also understood as a liminal night, one the ancient Celts believed was a time “when the veil between the human and spirit realms is lifted.” Fires were lit, the dead were remembered, and families drew close against the coming dark.
We don’t need to hold every belief our ancestors held to understand why this night mattered to them. The end of October asks the same question every year. What are you carrying into the dark months, and what are you ready to set down?
A season for remembering the ones before us
Across the ocean, these same weeks hold Día de Muertos. UNESCO, which inscribed the tradition as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008, describes a festivity at “the end of October to the beginning of November” that “commemorates the transitory return to Earth of deceased relatives and loved ones.” Families build altars with marigolds, candles, photographs and favourite foods, and welcome their people home for a night.
Two traditions, two continents, one instinct. When the year turns, we turn toward the people who made us.
Mushrooms have always belonged to ceremony
In the Mazatec highlands of Oaxaca, sacred mushrooms sat at the heart of a night ceremony called the velada, a vigil of song and prayer guided by a healer. The best known of those healers was María Sabina. In June 1955 she led a velada in Huautla for the banker R. Gordon Wasson, and Wasson’s 1957 essay in LIFE carried word of that ceremony to the rest of the world, as Garcia de Teresa (2022) traces in her history of the moment.
The velada belongs to the Mazatec people, and it deserves to be remembered as theirs. What it shows the rest of us is quiet and clear. The mushrooms were taken at night, with intention, with someone keeping watch, and with deep respect for whatever might come through.
What research says about intention
Modern research echoes part of that wisdom. In a prospective study that followed more than 650 people, Haijen and colleagues (Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2018) found that people who went in with clear intentions were more likely to report mystical type experiences, and that a positive state of mind beforehand made a challenging experience less likely. The authors concluded their findings “confirm the importance of extra-pharmacological factors” in shaping how people respond.
The same study found that a formal therapeutic environment changed less than expected. What carried weight was what each person brought with them. Preparation of the heart, more than of the room.
The moon on Halloween 2026
This year the full Hunter’s Moon peaks on the night of October 25 into the 26th, at 12:12 a.m. Eastern on the 26th or 9:11 p.m. Pacific on the 25th, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. By Halloween night the moon is waning gibbous, a little under two thirds lit and growing smaller each evening.
In many moon practices the waning phase belongs to release. It is the time for letting go rather than calling in, which makes it a fitting companion for the oldest meaning of the night.
A simple ritual for the thin night
Begin before dark. Clear a small space and make it an altar, nothing elaborate. A few fallen leaves, a photograph of someone you love who has passed, a marigold if you can find one, a cup of something warm. Our Longevity Tea was made for evenings like this one.
Write two short lists by hand. On the first, what this year gave you. On the second, what you are ready to leave behind with the last of October.
Choose your companion for the evening. For a soft night of reflection, many in our community reach for Divinity Blend or a single Albino A+ Chocolate Heart. For those who already know their path well, with a quiet, safe space and a trusted person to hold it, Macro Capsules have returned for the season.
Step outside once the moon has risen. Walk slowly. Notice the cold air and the bare branches. Say the names of the people you are remembering, aloud if it feels right.
Come home and read the second list one more time. Then bury it in the garden or let it go to the fire, safely, and allow the dark half of the year to begin.
Keep the night gentle
The crowded party and the haunted house are a different kind of Halloween, and they belong to a different evening. A ritual night asks for quiet, a familiar space, a nourishing meal beforehand and a clear head, so leave alcohol out of it. If you are going deep, have someone you trust nearby. And if this is your first time, begin with the lightest step and give yourself room to learn how your body responds.
You are your own medicine. The mushrooms, the moon and the old stories are companions on the way. Whatever you carry into this season, may you carry it gently.
Find a companion for your own ritual.
Night sky, moon, altar and forest photography via Unsplash, by Greg Rakozy, Hưng Phạm, Michael Hamments, Roger Ce, Nick Fewings, Sjoukje Bos, Tomasz Zielonka, Thanh Tam, Baraa Jalahej and Javier Allegue Barros.
