Samhain seals the year and opens the inward road. Bonfires once stitched villages together as food and drink were set out for the kindly dead; divinations were cast and doors left ajar. It is a time of courage and tenderness, where grief and love meet in the same bowl.

Modern druids tend altars with photographs and names, speak blessings for those who have gone, and practice the arts of remembrance. We acknowledge endings without despair, trusting the seed-time ahead. The hearth is a compass; the night is a teacher.