Sacred Samhain
A Ritual Retreat
Sacred Samhain | A Cross-Quarter Festival Ritual Retreat
Friday, October 30, 2026
12:00-2:00pm PST
a virtual retreat offered via Zoom
Samhain, celebrated around November 1, marks the turning from autumn into the deepening darkness of winter. In the Celtic seasonal imagination, this is a threshold time—a moment when the veil between worlds is thought to grow thin, the ancestors draw near, and we are invited to listen more deeply to the wisdom of the dark.
Samhain is a season of release, remembrance, and renewal. As the natural world slows and turns inward, we are invited to do the same: to honor what has passed, tend the sacred fire within, and make space for what is waiting to emerge.
In this Sacred Samhain mini-retreat, we will enter the season through the wisdom of the Crone, the plants, and the elemental power of fire. We will explore practices of cleansing, protection, blessing, and release as we prepare to cross the threshold into the dark season.
Together, we will create a temenos—a sacred circle of presence and intention—and work with the traditional symbol of the besom broom. You will craft your own broom as a ritual companion for the winter months: a symbol of sovereignty, discernment, and the wisdom to sweep away what no longer belongs.
This will be a time to pause at the threshold, listen inwardly, and consciously release what you are ready to leave behind.
No previous experience is necessary. New practitioners and curious seekers are warmly welcome.
Registration
Registered participants will receive a preparation list with the materials needed to create their own Besom Broom, along with suggestions for creating a sacred retreat space in your home.
The gathering will take place virtually on Zoom and will be recorded for registered participants who are unable to attend live. Zoom links will be sent to paid registrants two days before the program.
You are warmly invited to celebrate the turning of the Celtic Wheel of the Year with us in a sacred gathering that honors the rhythms of the earth and the wisdom of the ancestors. Join us for a virtual ritual retreat to honor Samhain, the threshold between Autumn and Winter in the Celtic tradition—a time when the veil between worlds is thin, and we connect deeply with the mysteries of life, death, and rebirth.
In this sacred circle, we will immerse ourselves in the wisdom of eco-spirituality, engaging in personal and communal rituals that align with the cycles of nature. Our journey will culminate in the creation of your own Besom Broom—a ritual broom imbued with the power to clear, bless, and sanctify your space as you navigate the dark season ahead.
This mini-retreat includes a live workshop where you’ll learn the ancient craft of making a besom, a tool traditionally used in both Celtic and earth-based spiritual practices for sweeping away negativity and preparing sacred spaces. Your Besom Broom will become a cherished ally in your rituals, whether in the sacred space of your home or in nature’s embrace.
Registrants will receive a detailed preparation list with all the materials needed to craft your besom, along with guidance on creating a sacred space in your home to fully experience the energy and intention of our virtual gathering. If you’re unable to join us live, the program will be recorded and shared with all registrants.
Zoom links will be sent to paid participants two days before the event.
This virtual, live ritual retreat will include:
Officiated ritual and blessings;
An overview and teaching on the significance of the Celtic Wheel of the Year, and Samhain;
Lineage and Ancestry Connection;
Grief Work;
Guided personal reflection time;
Live instruction for making your own Besom Broom;
Facilitated space to hear from and connect with one another;
Support to create your own personal ceremony to deepen into the sacramentality of this festival day.
Our time together will be a potent set-apart time, a time dedicated to the seasonal energies that are moving within and throughout us, in our own inner-nature, as well as throughout the wild world.
Sacred Samhain is a time for you to reflect on the summer energies within you, and to meaningfully engage with the plant community as aids and guides to support you as you cross the various thresholds of your own life.
Retreat Leader: Mary DeJong will guide and facilitate the Sacred Samhain Ritual Retreat. She is a spiritual ecologist, eco-theologian, urban naturalist, and practitioner and guide of place-based pilgrimage. She specializes in the spiritual companionship of “rewilding.” Mary facilitates retreats and pilgrimages in the Pacific Northwest and in Iona, Scotland that strengthen the unique and mystical interconnection of participants, the sacred, and the natural world. She has studied and practiced within the Celtic Christian spiritual tradition, her own maternal line heritage, for over twenty years, and is influenced by the lives of Celtic saints, the post-Heroic Journey, and the emerging field of eco-psychology, eco-mythology, and, Christian animism.
A ceremonialist and ritualist, Mary is masterful at creating temenos circles, sacred clearings where one can expect to be met by enchantment and holy mystery. She has facilitated online retreats and webinars on subjects related to sacred rewilding, eco spirituality, eco theology, and more. She hosts workshops and retreats where she delights in bringing people into the round of the Wheel of the Year as a spiritual practice and soul formation journey.
